Like a lot of cinephiles, CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7 represented my introduction to Varda, but it was a 2011 screening of THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS that kickstarted my interest in all of her work. THE GLEANERS AND I was one of the films I caught soon after and it remains a favorite. When I work my way through Criterion’s “Complete Films” boxed set, it will be a pleasure to revisit it.
Bold statement of the day - documentaries, on par, are lesser art forms than conventional films. Not to say some aren't great (I haven't seen this one, so no comment) but pound for pound they don't match up
That's bold indeed. I also disagree strongly with it, though it's plain that documentaries don't get the same level of respect in polls like these (or year-end lists) than "fiction" films do. (I have to put "fiction" in scare quotes here, because the line between what is and isn't "truth" can be a blurry one, often in an exciting way.) My one hang-up, which I expressed in a piece I wrote for The A.V. Club called "If documentaries wants to be treated like movies, they need to behave like them," is that I appreciate filmmakers, Varda among them, who take the nonfiction form as seriously as they do their fiction films. You can certainly fall back on a cookie-cutter approach to docs that's not very stimulating, but there are so many great ones that I would never think of calling it "a lesser art form."
I confess that some of these top 100 get the raised eyebrow and a, "Top 100? Really?" and under my breath, "more like worst 100." But this one was such a delight. Tell someone that you just enjoyed a French documentary about gleaning, and notice what their face does. But I just loved it. "I like dolls" guy killed me. So good.
I love having this ongoing series as it gives a little bit of framework to my "to do" list. "Oh, it looks like the next movie they're discussing is one I haven't seen, so I guess my choice of what to watch just got easier."
We watched this one last night and it was absolutely delightful. The best documentarians also seem like the ones who would be the best additions to any "fantasy dinner party" invite list. They seem to do what they do because of a genuine and limitless curiosity about the world around them and since I increasingly see "curious" and "incurious" as the dividing line between almost all that is good/progressive and bad/Trumpian in this world, I find that both infectious and crucially important.
(Speaking of which, I watched this on the Criterion channel and it linked me to the big list of Les Blank docs that they have there. Another filmmaker who just seemed endlessly fascinated by the world around him.)
I have also never seen The Red Shoes so bring on the next one!
That's a good point about "curious/incurious," which I think is linked to compassion as well. If you care about other people, you care about their world and the world in general. We could use a doc like this in the U.S., though Varda is not replaceable.
Like a lot of cinephiles, CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7 represented my introduction to Varda, but it was a 2011 screening of THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS that kickstarted my interest in all of her work. THE GLEANERS AND I was one of the films I caught soon after and it remains a favorite. When I work my way through Criterion’s “Complete Films” boxed set, it will be a pleasure to revisit it.
Bold statement of the day - documentaries, on par, are lesser art forms than conventional films. Not to say some aren't great (I haven't seen this one, so no comment) but pound for pound they don't match up
That's bold indeed. I also disagree strongly with it, though it's plain that documentaries don't get the same level of respect in polls like these (or year-end lists) than "fiction" films do. (I have to put "fiction" in scare quotes here, because the line between what is and isn't "truth" can be a blurry one, often in an exciting way.) My one hang-up, which I expressed in a piece I wrote for The A.V. Club called "If documentaries wants to be treated like movies, they need to behave like them," is that I appreciate filmmakers, Varda among them, who take the nonfiction form as seriously as they do their fiction films. You can certainly fall back on a cookie-cutter approach to docs that's not very stimulating, but there are so many great ones that I would never think of calling it "a lesser art form."
I confess that some of these top 100 get the raised eyebrow and a, "Top 100? Really?" and under my breath, "more like worst 100." But this one was such a delight. Tell someone that you just enjoyed a French documentary about gleaning, and notice what their face does. But I just loved it. "I like dolls" guy killed me. So good.
I love having this ongoing series as it gives a little bit of framework to my "to do" list. "Oh, it looks like the next movie they're discussing is one I haven't seen, so I guess my choice of what to watch just got easier."
We watched this one last night and it was absolutely delightful. The best documentarians also seem like the ones who would be the best additions to any "fantasy dinner party" invite list. They seem to do what they do because of a genuine and limitless curiosity about the world around them and since I increasingly see "curious" and "incurious" as the dividing line between almost all that is good/progressive and bad/Trumpian in this world, I find that both infectious and crucially important.
(Speaking of which, I watched this on the Criterion channel and it linked me to the big list of Les Blank docs that they have there. Another filmmaker who just seemed endlessly fascinated by the world around him.)
I have also never seen The Red Shoes so bring on the next one!
That's a good point about "curious/incurious," which I think is linked to compassion as well. If you care about other people, you care about their world and the world in general. We could use a doc like this in the U.S., though Varda is not replaceable.