Lions Love

Lion's Love is a pseudo-documentary with no concrete direction. It asks us to be voyeurs of three people who define cavalierism.. An oddly fascinating look at late 60's America via the very french Varda. Hard to recommend, but cineastes of new-wave/non-linear film will love it. Worth noting for a cameo by James Douglas Morrison as a theater patron.

Documentary maker Shirley Clarke comes to Hollywood... finding nothing there .... to negotiate with a big studio about making a movie in which movie stars play themselves. Instead, she hangs out with three fringe actors while her agent negotiates with studio brass. All this is against the background of the Robert Kennedy assassination and the shooting of Andy Warhol.

It's an Agnes Varda movie, which means there is a sarcastic edge to the affair. The actors, part of Andy Warhol's coterie, perform their ad lib roles in a very artificial manner; Miss Clarke refuses to do a particular scene, so Miss Varda comes from behind the camera to do it herself. Only the agent and studio executive give realistic performances. For the rest of it, it seems, it's a movie about movie people trying to make a movie. It's endlessly recursive, and the failure of the project means that's this winds up being a movie about not making a movie. In the end, there is no movie, no studio making a movie, no Hollywood (beyond Larry Edmond's book shop), no Robert Kennedy, and very nearly no Andy Warhol or Shirley Clarke. It's a movie about nothing, except the lights and colors of Hollywood. It's an elaborately detailed travelogue, stretched out two hours, with beautiful people who are so shallow they might exist only on a flat movie screen.

This film captures the spirit i was possessed by whilst a teenager, i love it achingly. Not for everyone. For one thing, don't expect a plot driven film, that's just silly to expect here, expect a decadent period piece, with eye popping visuals and hippie excess. For me it's one of the best things i'll ever see!

If we were to debate about French filmmakers who have made successful films in Hollywood,it would appear that Agnès Varda is certainly not the first person from France who made a film in Hollywood.There were many people before her including great French master Jean Renoir who made films which had favorable outcome in Hollywood.What is important to note is that her films based in Hollywood gained more popularity as she and her husband Jacques Demy were close to American cultural icon Andy Warhol.This is also the case with her film "Lions Love" in which she makes attempts to understand working style of Hollywood people.The highlight of the film is her quest to fathom how American films get their finances in a tough jungle called Hollywood.Lions Love is also a tale of reflections of a French lady on American events of the time as there is a significant mention of the assassination of American president John.F.Kennedy.Those who are looking for traces of feminism found in other films by Agnès Varda would be highly disappointed as Lions Love is very much a light work in terms of its filming style and theme.

I checked this movie out as it sounded interesting as it starred Warhol discovery Viva and the writers of the musical "Hair" and was filmed by Agnes Varda who made "Cleo from 5 to 7". I was looking forward to seeing this but was so disappointed because it is a terrible and amateurish film with unappealing characters.

Rado and Ragni should never have stepped in front of a camera. (Instead they should have been busy writing a new hit musical.) It is now clear to me why Viva never became a movie star and why this movie now is forgotten and unseen. Shirley Clark is the only interesting person in it and I wonder what this movie would have been without the Kennedy assassination.

It's ironic that the film studio people in the film talk about having the final cut of a film project and how the Clarke's agent wants her to retain creative control over her film. This film HAD been better with a lot of editing, cutting out all of Viva, Rado and Ragni (but the there wouldn't have been anything left!).

What could have been a cult documentary of the scene in 1969 California is just an incredibly dull because of Varda's choice of lead characters. Just because these people had been involved in some cool 60's projects did not mean that they were worthy of being subjects of a documentary. The only funny part is when they discuss pregnancy and how it would be good to speed up the process.