Agnes Varda's 'Kung-Fu Master!'

[GeneChing]

This is NOT a Kung Fu flick. But it's getting buzz that's very confusing to the newsfeeds, so I figure we might as well start a thread on it here, just for archival sake.

Exclusive: Jane Birkin Sings In Clip From Agnes Varda's 'Kung-Fu Master!'
By Edward Davis | The Playlist
October 15, 2015 at 4:05PM



At 87-years-old, legendary filmmaker Agnes Varda has no intention of slowing down, releasing a new short film just last month with "Les 3 Boutons" (watch it here). But if you're new to the filmmaker, or have pockets of her filmography waiting to be discovered, the Lincoln Plaza in New York City has you covered. Starting this weekend, they are bringing to the big screen two collaborations between the director and Jane Birkin: the experimental bio-doc "Jane B. Par Agnes V.," and the excellently named "Kung-Fu Master!" And today we have an exclusive clip from the latter.

Before you go thinking that Varda directed a martial arts epic you knew nothing about, the title refers to a video game played by 14-year-old Julien (Mathieu Demy), who becomes the object of conflicted affection of a 40-year-old woman, played by Birkin. This scene occurs early in the film, shortly after Birkin's character meets Julien for the first time: he's throwing up in her bathroom after drinking too much Vodka at her daughter's daytime fete, and afterwards, she notices him watching her while she sings her youngest daughter to sleep.

Both "Jane B. Par Agnes V." and "Kung-Fu Master!" hit the big screen on Friday. Watch below.

There is a vid, but it's embedded so you must follow the link if you want to see.

[GeneChing]

Review Restored 'Jane B.' and 'Kung-Fu Master!' offer a study in groundbreaking feminist filmmaking



Katie Walsh

Cinelicious Pics is presenting a restoration of two films created in collaboration between French New Wave grand dame Agnès Varda and 1960s actress and singer Jane Birkin. Filmed in 1987 and 1988, these films explore the passage of time, aging, creativity and motherhood in wholly original ways that feel progressive nearly 30 years later.

"Jane B. par Agnès V." and "Kung-Fu Master!" blur the line between reality and fiction — the former more of a documentary, the latter a narrative feature, based off a story written by Birkin.

"Jane B. par Agnès V." is a nonfiction film that explores the tension in Birkin's roles as both muse and artist. Birkin, known best for her work with longtime partner Serge Gainsbourg (who makes a brief appearance), offers a way to dive into this relationship. The film mixes conversations between the women with Jane at home, reminiscing about her life, memories, dreams and children. These set the basis for a series of staged scenarios in different styles from cinema and art history: a Laurel and Hardy routine, a lover's squabble performed with Jean-Pierre Léaud. In staged Renaissance painting tableaux, Jane ruminates on different topics, including her birthday. Declaring "beauty is irritating," Varda questions the construct of beauty, offering a voice to the subjects of art.

Varda pushes Birkin to reconcile her simultaneous desires for fame and anonymity. Mystery creates objects of fantasy, and Varda wants to make transparent the process of being seen and being known. As director, she interrogates the role of the camera itself, and she seeks to empower the subject of the camera's gaze. The film addresses its own role in creating this portrait of Jane, revealing the camera lens as a participant. This partnership between director and subject allows for a complicated and humanizing portrayal of an icon that takes on nostalgia, fame, identity and the nature of cinema itself.

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In "Jane B. par Agnès V." the women discuss the other film from their creative union, "Kung-Fu Master!" In that movie, an older woman, Mary-Jane, falls in love with a teenage boy. Again mixing reality and fiction, Birkin's children Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon play her daughters, and Varda's son, Mathieu Demy, plays the boy. The title refers to a video game over which they bond, which emphasizes the boy's youth. Their relationship is at once maternal and romantic, and the film is emblematic of truly bold and risky feminine filmmaking. Complicating matters, Mary-Jane has to teach her teenage daughter — a sweet and slightly awkward Gainsbourg — how to navigate love and sex against the backdrop of the late-1980s AIDS crisis.

The restoration of the films is lush and warm and feels true to Varda's style, capturing Birkin, and Paris, during this specific time. However, the real reason to see this work is to experience groundbreaking feminist filmmaking from two people who were ahead of their time in exploring modern ideas about women as mothers, artists and individuals.

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"Jane B. par Agnes V"
No MPAA rating
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes.

"Kung-Fu Master!"
No MPAA rating.
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle's Royal, West L.A.

I really don't know what this is but feel strangely obligated to see it.

[GeneChing]

BY JOSHUA BRUNSTING NEWS, REVIEWS MARCH 7, 2016
AGNES VARDA’S JANE B. PAR AGNES V. AND KUNG-FU MASTER! ARRIVE ON BLU-RAY [EXCLUSIVE CLIP]



Cinelicious Pics, after releasing the films in theaters late last year, are releasing two of director Agnes Varda’s most interesting, and yet underseen, features on DVD and Blu-ray this week. Teaming Varda with actress Jane Birkin (best known for her turn in Blow Up), a pairing of a French New Wave icon and a multi-hyphenate actress/singer/model that would foster two truly breathtaking experiments the likes of which are rarely seen.



Entitled Jane B. Par Agnes V. and Kung-Fu Master!, we’ve previously reviewed both films during their theatrical run in Los Angeles, and here are a few thoughts about each film from your’s truly:

Jane B. Par Agnes V.:

Jane B. Par Agnes V. finds Varda at her most playful. Described by Varda, in the film itself, as “an imaginary bio-pic,” Jane is a faux-documentary about actress and singer Birkin, coming out of the idea of Birkin being melancholy about turning 40. Attempting to dig into the psyche of Birkin, Varda’s film is a rather potent look at a woman on the brink of an emotional crisis, and also a delightfully playful bit of cinematic experimentation. With most of the sequences staged, the film’s greatest flight of fancy comes when they begin discussing ideas for a film, that ultimately becomes the brilliant gem of this pair Kung-Fu Master!
Jane B. is a truly great achievement. A definitively Varda experiment in structure, tone, mood and craft, the film is an anarchic, expressionistic look at a women in the middle of a melancholic crisis. At one moment a costume drama featuring some of the most ornate and baroque set and costume design Varda would ever use in her pictures, and the next it becomes a black and white comedy in the silent tradition. It is in this blending of tones and aesthetics that the energy of the film is truly shown. Varda is a major player within the history of the French New Wave movement, and it’s this type of film that proves her spirit was just as vital and experimental as any of her contemporaries.

Kung-Fu Master!:

Kung Fu Master was shot along with that film, and tells the story of a 40 year old single mother who falls in love with a friend of her daughter, a 14 year old boy played by Mathieu Demy, Agnes Varda’s real life son.
Yes, it’s a more conventional, a more stayed and a more structured composition, but it’s also genuinely emotionally involving. As mentioned above, the film tells the story of a middle aged single mother who begins a quiet romance with a teenage friend of her daughter. Beautifully shot with washed out blues and deep, warm browns playing as the palette for this emotionally powerful narrative, Kung-Fu Master! is a shockingly intimate picture, with great performances. Birkin proves herself to be a genuinely superb dramatic actress, giving the character a level of nuance and humanity that makes the proceedings absolutely heart-shattering.
Cinelicious Pics is releasing the film on DVD and Blu-ray, and it’s a gorgeous release, the third in the young company’s existence. After Adi Shankar’s Gangs Of Wasseypur and Adam Rufkin’s Guiseppe Makes A Movie, the company has upped the ante with their latest Blu-ray. Besides the truly beautiful artwork, composed of lovely pastel hues, leading even to the discs themselves, both simply designed but nonetheless striking. Supplements here include superb interviews with Varda on the actual discs, which also feature top notch restorations overseen by Varda, but it’s really the booklet that will have fans of the filmmaker, and these films, craving this release. Not only is there a great essay from scholar Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, that is not only a necessary read for these films, but a solid overview of Varda as a filmmaker, and Varda herself gets to speak here, in an with fellow director Miranda July. It’s a shockingly dense release from a company that, if they keep this level of quality up, will become yet another boutique label worth keeping an eye on.

And if you need even more reason to take a chance on this release, we have an exclusive clip from Kung-Fu Master!, arguably the more accessible of the pair, but this should hint at just how entrancing these two films truly are.

Read more about the two films from our review HERE and you can buy the Blu-ray directly from Cinelicious Pics or Amazon.

The clip is on vimeo but it is blocked somehow so I couldn't cut&paste it here.

[Taste of Death]

Thank you for the update. Agnes Varda is one of my favorite filmmakers.