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Archive for May, 2005

Cinévardaphoto (Agnès Varda, 2004)

Posted by Eric on May 20th, 2005

An anthology unified by a single director, though the pieces were directed separately and, as far as I’m aware, pieced together well after the fact. I’m hindered by the fact that two of the reels were projected in the incorrect order, which placed the first half of the “Salut les Cubains” segment before “Ulysse,” a one-reel study on what must’ve been Varda’s favorite of her own photographs, and the second half in it’s proper place capping off the entire trio. In retrospect, I think the progression was a crucial ingredient. The chronology begins (with “Ydessa, the Bears, and etc…”) at the end, so to speak: where photographs represent the impossible past, the death of its subjects’ physical existence and into the realm of interpretation and translation to modern understanding. Then Varda uses one of her own photos to juxtapose something instantaneous against the heft of the human duration, and the effect that has on changing perception within (whereas the first segment concentrated on the without). It all culminates in the last segment (which apparently owes some small debt to Chris Marker’s ¡Cuba Sí!, to say nothing of La Jetée), where Varda attempts, through rhythmic and (to my taste) extremely addictive editing techniques and exposure flashes, to make still photographs dance.

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