Visages, villages

Prolific and delightful Agnès Varda teams up with the celebrated photographer J.R. on a road trip through rural France. JR, well known for his photography murals, this time mainly focuses on the images of rural French working class, but the conversations between the two artists, touch on other themes that are equally interesting to follow.

Faces Places is one of those disarmingly charming films that are hard not to like, but its main theme, maybe too easy to digest, can make you peckish for a bit more challenge by the time the film is over.

"Lyrical" best expresses with poetic simplicity the greatness of Faces Places, a documentary from French director Agnes Varda and street photographer, graffiti artist, JR. Together they create a song like film that immortalizes the French countryside and the people who work there.

Cruising in their van tricked out to look like a camera, they converse with and capture in photos goatherds, farmers, coal miners, factory workers, and cheese makers. By engaging their subjects with a sincere interest in what they do (Varda comes back a second time to connect with a lady whose principled tending of goats (not burning off young horns) appeals to the still formidable, principled director.

Varda and JR's blowing up the portraits to put on the sides of buildings, hills, ant trains not only ingratiates the artists with the subjects, but also figuratively comments on the director and photographer's ability to magnify the beauty of human nature. All photographers should hope for that impact.

A recurring motif about JR's unwillingness to remove his sunglasses (I identify) reminds Varda of her New-Wave friend, Godard, leading them to attempt to visit the famed director at the end of the film. Regardless of her success in connecting, Godard serves a touchstone for the genius of Varda and friends in the '60's just as JR helps make her just as relevant today at 88.

She's a remarkable grand dame, and although some have called her work "thrift-shop cinema," she and partner JR are savvy enough to win the 2017 Golden Eye for a documentary at Cannes. Best expressing her optimism and realism, she says about her death, "I'm looking forward to it. Because that'll be that." "That" is a body of work, the present doc included, that spans a half century of sublime cinema with immortality on its mind.

Time seems to be moving faster with every passing decade, with a younger generation looming around the corner to put a fresh perspective on life, art and politics. Visages Villages introduces the gap between the old and the new, as director Agnes Varda and photographer J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship along the way.

J.R. and Agnes steal the show with their engaging philosophical chats and heartwarming intergenerational chemistry, no writer could've written a script like this. As we follow them on their travels from town to town, a deeper connection is developed not just between the two artists but between the townspeople they leave a mark on, literally. Both retrospective and introspective, Visages Villages challenges the viewer to bridge the generational gap with respect and gratitude but also to shape what has already come, to better what is to be. This thoroughly sweet watch will leave you with a gigantic smile on your face, and is likely to remain as indelible as the art work that is displayed.

I can't say that I completely agree with the level of acclaim this film has gotten, but for the most part, it remains the type of documentary film I love- very observational, very experimental, and free-flowing in its expression of art, love, and other positive emotions. The film is edited very well, and although I didn't really connect with every single piece of story told on screen, I got to enjoy the film as a whole and everything it amounted to. For an acquired taste, but definitely recommended.

I was lucky to get to see this wonderful film on the big screeen - a treatment it justly deserves. JR is a master artist and Varda needs to introduction - she was a brilliant light in the world of cinema. I took great emotion in each of the locales and the art pieces they made together. This is a wonderful and lovely film which gets better on repeated viewings.