Agnès Varda’s film LIONS LOVE (… AND LIES)—shot in 1968 in the days preceding and following the shootings of Andy Warhol (who survived) and Bobby Kennedy (who didn’t)—is a story of Eden-under-siege among a trio of Hollywood Hills freedom-seekers, remarkably played by Warhol superstar Viva, and James Rado and Gerome Ragni (the lyricists of Hair).
“[Varda’s] film is more than a time capsule of events and moods—it’s a living aesthetic model for revolutionary times.” — Richard Brody, The New Yorker*
LIONS LOVE (… AND LIES) is part of the Criterion Collection box AGNÈS VARDA IN CALIFORNIA (which also includes BLACK PANTHERS and DOCUMENTEUR), available now.
See Sasha Archibald, “End of the End of the End: Agnès Varda in Los Angeles”:
eastofborneo.org/articles/end-of-the-end-of-the-end-agnes-varda-in-los-angeles/
criterion.com/boxsets/1124-eclipse-series-43-agnes-varda-in-california
* newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/lions-love-and-lies
This week in Toronto, Varda and her new collaborator, the French street artist JR, present their film VISAGES VILLAGES/FACES PLACES, wherein they roam the countryside in JR’s truck, encountering farmers, cheese makers, coal miners—the faces of whom JR memorializes in huge monochromatic portraits. Their journey eventually lands them at the door of Jean-Luc Godard.
VISAGES VILLAGES/FACES PLACES, Monday, September 11; Wednesday, September 13; Friday, September 15; and Sunday, September 17.
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
tiff.net/tiff/faces-places/
A Film Comment interview with Varda is the cover story in the current issue.
AGNÈS VARDA—THE FILM COMMENT INTERVIEW, September/October 2017 issue.
www.filmcomment.com/
From top:
Agnès Varda and JR. Visages Villages/Faces Places (2016). Image credit: Le Pacte.
Gerome Ragni, Viva, and James Rado in Lions Loves… (and Lies), (1969). Image credit: Criterion.
Film Comment, September/October 2017 issue. Image credit: Film Comment.
The first issue of Interview, with Varda (center) and the cast of Lions Loves… (and Lies).
