JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V.
1987 | dir: Agnès Varda | 97 min
NEW 2K RESTORATION!
First-ever U.S. Theatrical Release
“I’ll look at you, but not at the camera. It could be a trap,” whispers Jane Birkin shyly into Agnès Varda’s ear at the start of JANE B. PAR AGNES V. The director of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and VAGABOND once again paints a portrait of a woman, this time in a marvelously Expressionistic way. “It’s like an imaginary bio-pic,” says Varda. Jane, of course, is the famed singer (“Je t’aime … Moi non plus”), actress (BLOW UP), fashion icon (the Hermes Birkin bag) and longtime muse to Serge Gainsbourg. As Varda implies, JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V. abandons the traditional bio-pic format, favoring instead a freewheeling mix of gorgeous and unexpected fantasy sequences.
In each, Jane inhabits a new character, playing a cat & mouse game with Varda as they explore the role of the Muse and the Artist, all the while showcasing the multifaceted nature of Birkin’s talent. “I’d like to be filmed as if I were transparent, anonymous, like everyone else,” says Birkin. But her wish to be a “famous nobody” is impossible to achieve; Birkin is simply too magnificent, too mesmerizing. Here, Varda’s signature mix of aesthetic innovation and generosity of emotion results in a surreal and captivating essay on Art, Fame, Love, Children and Staircases. For its first-ever U.S. theatrical release the film has been newly-restored from the original 35mm camera negative, overseen by director Varda herself.
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IN THEATERS
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| Sept 14, 2015 | Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar | Austin, TX | get ’em |
| Sept 25, 26, & 28, 2015 | Northwest Film Center | Portland, OR | get ’em |
| Oct 16-22, 2015 | Lincoln Plaza Cinemas | New York, NY | get ’em |
| Oct 10, 2015 | Wexner Center for the Arts | Columbus, OH | get ’em | Oct 11, 2015 | Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | get ’em |
| Oct 17-18, 2015 | Texas Theater | Dallas, TX | get ’em |
| Nov 2-6, 2015 | Northwest Film Forum | Seattle, WA | get ’em |
| Nov 13-19, 2015 | Royal Movie Theater | Los Angeles, CA | get ’em |
| Nov 13, 2015 | PhilaMOCA | Philadelphia, PA | get ’em |
| Nov 14, 2015 | Cinematheque, University of Wisconsin | Madison, WI | get ’em |
| Nov 21, 2015 | National Gallery of Art | Washington, DC | get ’em |
| Dec 19, 2015 | Videology Bar & Cinema | Brooklyn, NY | get ’em |
| Jan 31 & Feb 6, 2016 | Film Society Lincoln Center | New York, NY | get ’em |
| Mar 27, 2016 | 3S Artspace | Portsmouth, NH | get ’em |
OFFICIAL THEATRICAL TRAILER
Kung-Fu Master!
KUNG-FU MASTER!
1987 | dir: Agnès Varda | 80 min
NEW 2K RESTORATION!
A lovely, bittersweet companion to JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V. from director Agnes Varda and star/muse Jane Birkin, KUNG-FU MASTER has nothing to do with martial arts – the film’s title comes from an arcade video game played obsessively in the film by a teenaged boy, Julien. Birkin delivers one of her finest performances as a lonely 40-year old woman who finds herself shattering taboos by falling in love with the 14-year old Julien – but is it romance, or a desperate attempt to turn back time in the face of middle age?
KUNG-FU MASTER is truly a family affair: Varda’s son with the late director Jacques Demy, Mathieu Demy, plays Julien – and Birkin appears here with her two real-life daughters: Charlotte Gainsbourg (from Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA) and Lou Doillon, her child with well-known filmmaker Jacques Doillon. Briefly released in the late 1980s in the U.S. and long unavailable here, KUNG-FU MASTER has been beautifully restored from the original 35mm camera negative. “It’s a film in which all the younger actors are the children of the director and lead actress” says Varda. “It was like a picnic, you know?”
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IN THEATERS
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| Sept 3-4, 9-20, & 26-27, 2015 | Time & Space Limited | Hudson, NY | get ’em |
| Sept 21, 2015 | Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar | Austin, TX | get ’em |
| Sept 25, 26, & 28, 2015 | Northwest Film Center | Portland, OR | get ’em |
| Oct 9, 2015 | Avon Theatre Film Center | Stamford, CT | get ’em |
| Oct 10, 2015 | Wexner Center for the Arts | Columbus, OH | get ’em |
| Oct 16-22, 2015 | Lincoln Plaza Cinemas | New York, NY | get ’em |
| Oct 17-18, 2015 | Texas Theater | Dallas, TX | get ’em |
| Oct 19, 2015 | The Nickelodeon | Columbia, SC | get ’em |
| Nov 2-6, 2015 | Northwest Film Forum | Seattle, WA | get ’em |
| Nov 13-19, 2015 | Royal Movie Theater | Los Angeles, CA | get ’em |
| Nov 13, 2015 | PhilaMOCA | Philadelphia, PA | get ’em |
| Nov 14, 2015 | Cinematheque, University of Wisconsin | Madison, WI | get ’em |
| Jan 31 & Feb 5, 2016 | Film Society Lincoln Center | New York, NY | get ’em |
| Feb 20 & 23, 2016 | Chicago Filmmakers | Chicago, IL | get ’em |
OFFICIAL THEATRICAL TRAILER
INDIEWIRE: Cinelicious Pics is bringing two rarely seen Agnès Varda gems to a new generation of audiences.
Agnès Varda and Jane Birkin in JANE B. PAR ANGES V.
by Ryan Lattanzio | TOH!
APRIL 13, 2015 | LOS ANGELES
LA cinephiles had the pleasures of seeing two Agnès Varda discoveries from the middle of her career, and of seeing the legendary French filmmaker speak, at an American Cinematheque retrospective this past weekend.
Cinelicious Pics has just acquired the double bill “Jane B. by Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master,” both starring Euro icon Jane Birkin, for US theatrical, VOD and Home Video distribution. Supervised by Varda, the new restorations made their West Coast debut over the weekend, and looked gorgeous in digital 2K.
Less a biopic than a quasi-fiction, poetic-realist documentary, “Jane B. By Agnes V” looks at the actress’ many faces. Really, it’s Varda’s “Orlando,” a time-hopping stitching together of Birkin’s best and least-favorite roles, and the parts she dreams of playing (including Joan of Arc). The film features Birkin’s longtime collaborator and erstwhile lover Serge Gainsbourg, New Wave actor Jean-Pierre Léaud (a.k.a. Antoine Doinel), Birkin’s daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg (who went on to star in the films of Lars von Trier) and Varda’s son Mathieu Demy, whom she had with her filmmaker-husband Jacques Demy.
Mathieu Demy and Charlotte Gainsbourg in KUNG FU MASTER
A young Mathieu Demy and 14-year-old Charlotte Gainsbourg also appear in Varda’s challenging romance “Kung Fu Master,” which stretches the “May-December” definition to its extremes. Aside from a video game that Demy’s early-teens Julien obsessively plays, the film has nothing to do with kung fu. Instead, the 40-year-old Birkin plays the single mother of two who falls in love with him. Their relationship is treated very matter-of-factly by Varda, who imbues it with a tenderness that is well-played, and earnestly acted, by Demy and Birkin.
At the Aero Theatre on Saturday, Varda said she wrote the film in “two minutes” after Birkin pitched the story to her during the making of “Jane B.” They took a break on that production and shot “Kung-Fu” quickly in the summer. Varda, who most famously directed “Cleo From 5 to 7” and “The Gleaners and I,” didn’t feel weird about directing her young son as the object of a much older woman’s affections. “From the minute we started to film, he was Julien.”
According to Varda, “Kung-Fu Master” hasn’t played much on French TV due to its controversial subject matter. The film also deals head-on with the rise of AIDS in the ’80s, interjecting its whimsical broken-fairytale romance with PSAs about sexual awareness and the disease’s ever-growing reach.
When asked if “Jane B.” (never released in the US) and “Kung-Fu” (released briefly in the 80s) belong together as a double bill, Varda said, “I don’t think so. They’re two separate films.” She may be right, but it’s a treat we get to see them at all, and newly resurrected from their original 35mm negatives.
Release dates forthcoming.