Tag Archives: Shirley Clarke

THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA

A founder of the French New Wave who became an international art-house icon, Agnès Varda was a fiercely independent, restlessly curious visionary whose work was at once personal and passionately committed to the world around her. In an abundant career in which she never stopped expanding the notion of what a movie can be, Varda forged a unique cinematic vocabulary that frequently blurs the boundaries between narrative and documentary, and entwines loving portraits of her friends, her family, and her own inner world with a social consciousness that was closely attuned to the 1960s counterculture, the women’s liberation movement, the plight of the poor and socially marginalized, and the ecology of our planet. This comprehensive collection places Varda’s filmography in the context of her parallel work as a photographer and multimedia artist—all of it a testament to the radical vision, boundless imagination, and radiant spirit of a true original for whom every act of creation was a vital expression of her very being. — The Criterion Collection

The new box set THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA features digital restorations of thirty-nine films as well as the television productions Agnès de ci de là Varda, Nausicaa (1970), Quelques veuves de Noirmoutier, and Varda’s segments from Une minute pour une image.

Also included: rare archival footage, tributes and interviews, segments from unfinished works, and a 200-page book with contributions by Amy Taubin, Michael Koresky, Ginette Vincendeau, So Mayer, Alexandra Hidalgo, and Rebecca Bengal, as well as a selection of Varda’s photography and images of her installation art.

The feature films are divided into fifteen programs:

Agnès Forever — Varda by Agnès (2019), Les 3 boutons (2015).

Early Varda — La Pointe Courte (1955), Ô saisons, ô châteaux (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958).

Around Paris — Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962), Les fiancés du pont Macdonald (1962), L’opéra-mouffe (1958), Les dites cariatides (1984), T’as de beaux escaliers, tu sais (1986).

Rue Daguerre — Daguerréotypes (1975), Le lion volatil (2003).

Married Life — Le bonheur (1965), Les créatures (1966), Elsa la Rose (1966).

In California — Uncle Yanco (1968), Black Panthers (1970), Lions Love (. . . and Lies) (1969), Mur Murs (1981), Documenteur (1981).

Her Body, Herself — One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977), Réponse de femmes (1975), Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1977).

No Shelter — Vagabond (1985), 7 p., cuis., s. de b. . . . (à saisir) (1985).

Jane B. — Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988), Kung-Fu Master! (1988).

Jacques Demy — Jacquot de Nantes (1991), The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993), The World of Jacques Demy (1995).

Simon Cinéma — One Hundred and One Nights (1995).

La glaneuse — The Gleaners and I (2000), The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002).

Visual Artist — Visages Villages, codirected with JR (2017), Salut les cubains (1964), Ulysse (1982), Ydessa, les ours et etc. . . . (2004).

Here and There — Agnès de ci de là Varda (2011).

Beaches — The Beaches of Agnès (2008).

See link below for details.

THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA

The Criterion Collection

Agnès Varda, from top: Varda in Visages, Villages; Du côté de la côte; Black Panthers; Nausicaa; Réponse de femmes poster; Salut les Cubains (2); Shirley Clarke, Gerome Ragni, and Viva in Lions Love (. . . and Lies); One Sings, the Other Doesn’t; The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, courtesy and © Criterion; Jane Birkin in Jane B. par Agnès V.; Daguerréotypes; Agnès de ci de là Varda. Images courtesy and © the estate of Agnès Varda and Ciné-Tamaris.

SHIRLEY CLARKE — THE COOL WORLD

I know a lot about alienation… I think all women filmmakers are aware of it. It was the subject of a lot of the conversations I had with Maya Deren. We agreed that we were always going to present a united front to the world…

I would not have been able to make THE COOL WORLD had I not been living with Carl Lee at that time. It took Carl three months of going up to Harlem all the time, gathering kids, and bringing them down for us to interview… The “good” kids in school weren’t giving us believable readings… I finally persuaded Carl to try to get to the gangs, [and] it was very exciting because the “real” kids started improvising the script we had written right back to us.Shirley Clarke

As part of the UCLA Film and Television Archive series American Neorealism, Part One—1948–1984, Clarke’s THE COOL WORLD will screen at the Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum this weekend on a double bill with Michael Roemer’s Nothing But a Man.

Frederick Wiseman produced THE COOL WORLD, and the jazz score is by Mal Waldron, with Dizzy Gillespie on the soundtrack.

THE COOL WORLD

Saturday, January 18, at 7:30 pm.

Billy Wilder Theater—Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Shirley Clarke, The Cool World (1964). Film stills and (above) photographs of Clarke on set and with composer Mal Waldron. Images courtesy the filmmaker’s estate, the actors, the producers, and the distributors.

MICHEL AUDER — FICTIONAL ART FILM

Alice Neel, Bill T. JonesAndy WarholTaylor MeadJohn Ashbery, Annie SprinkleDavid Hammons, VivaHannah Wilke, Arthur Aviles, Shirley Clarke, and Willem de Kooning are among the artists, poets, and performers captured on film by their friend Michel Auder during the 1970s and ’80s.

Auder has assembled this footage for his exhibition FICTIONAL ART FILM, now on view in Harlem.

MICHEL AUDER—FICTIONAL ART FILM

Through February 24.

Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

439 West 127th Street, New York City.

Top two and above: Michel Auder—Fictional Art Film (2019), stills. Middle: Michel Auder—Fictional Art Film, 2019, installation view, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise. Images courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.