"Varda en vadrouille/Agnès on the Road Again, " an Extended Review of Visages Villages by Agnès Varda & JR (2017). Issue 4 (8th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bénézet, Delphine
• Is Part Of: Contemporary French and francophone studies. Volume 22:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 406
• Page End: 417
• Publication Date: 2018-08-08
• Subjects: Agnès Varda -- space -- memory -- mortality -- connections -- materiality; French literature -- Periodicals; France -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Study and teaching -- France -- Periodicals; 306.094405
• DOI: 10.1080/17409292.2018.1537603
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-9292

Abstract

Abstract: This article offers an extended review of Visages Villages, Agnès Varda's latest film. In this travelogue which she co-directs with JR, a French photographer and street artist known for his gigantic installations, Varda explores the French landscape that she loves through her exchanges with locals. By focusing on fragments of the film that I consider both significant and consistent with ideas which are prevalent in the rest of Varda's oeuvre, this text offers a range of critical tools to better understand this inventive travelogue. One can only appreciate the vivacious drive of this octogenarian director by establishing connections between specific sequences of Visages Villages and the notions of geography/space, memory, and sensual film.