Category: Culture

Director Agnès Varda is getting ready to say goodbye

At the Berlin Film Festival where she presented her documentary “Varda by Agnès”, New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda said she was “slowing down” and “getting ready to say goodbye”. She announced that she would no longer lecture or interview one-on-one.

“I should stop talking about myself, and here I am, I have to prepare to say goodbye, to leave,” said Agnès Varda, at a press conference. “It’s just a matter of slowing down to find the necessary peace,” added the French filmmaker, who was asked if she was saying goodbye to the film.

A movie to say goodbye

His documentary “Varda by Agnès”, is in two parts in the form of a movie lesson. Agnès Varda looks back on her career of more than 60 years. It will be broadcast on March 18th on the television channel Arte in France. She talks about his inspirations and his work, the 20 thcentury in the first pane and from the 2000s in the second period it was more focused on the documentary and visual arts.

Film image & quot; Varda by Agnes & quot; presented at the Berlin Film Festival 2019.Image from the movie “Varda by Agnes” presented at the Berlin Film Festival 2019.

 © DR

“I’ve done a lot of lectures everywhere, at universities, film schools, all kinds of places, festivals, even small film clubs, and I thought I should do a movie now that’s like a conference, “she explained. This film is “a way to say goodbye, because I do not want to talk about my films anymore”, added the director, stating that “now, she would not accept to lecture anymore” or “to give interviews in head-to-head”.

“Women have conquered the field of cinema”

Agnès Varda, a pioneer woman for her time, returned to her directorial debut in 1954 with her first feature film “La Pointe courte”. “There were very few women directors,” she said. But “when I made this film, what interested me was not to say ‘I’m a female director’, it was to make a radical film,” she said. “Today, it is very important that women not only be directors, but cheffers operators, mixers, sound engineers, editors … Women have gradually conquered the field of cinema”, s’ she is congratulated.
The director of “Cléo de 5 à 7”, who led with actress Cate Blanchett a women’s march for equality at the last Cannes Film Festival, estimated however “half happy” with this operation, that she found “a little too chic cinema”. “It was beautiful women on beautiful stairs with beautiful dresses,” she said. “And it’s less effective sometimes than walking in the street or meeting.”

Source: La réalisatrice Agnès Varda se prépare “à dire au revoir”

Immersive Van Gogh Experience Arrives at Atelier des Lumières on February 22

New to the roster of immersive exhibitions at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris, Van Gogh, Starry Night takes visitors on a journey through Vincent Van Gogh’s prolific life and his sojourns in France and the Netherlands. From his early years to his later, radically different years, all of the impressionist painter’s landscapes, portraits, and still lives are on display. Van Gogh, Starry Night runs from February 22, 2019, until December 31, 2019.

Van Gogh’s numerous works, including The Potato Eaters (1885), Sunflowers (1888), Starry Night (1889), and Bedroom at Arles (1889), are projected on all surfaces of the Atelier, inviting viewers into a 360-degree view of the artist’s private world — highly emotional, chaotic, poetic. The impressionist is known for his expressive and powerful brushstrokes, use of bold colors, and interplay of light and shade. Accompanying the exhibition, and located in a “tank” in the center of the room, is a selection of Van Gogh’s famous paintings, with commentaries about the works and the museums in which they are displayed.

Visual and musical work are produced by Culturespaces and directed by Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto, and Massimiliano Siccardi.

Source: Immersive Van Gogh Experience Arrives at Atelier des Lumières on February 22 – Frenchly

Dogs barking could cost owners €68 in rural village

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Councillors introduce bylaw to keep the peaceA local bylaw to silence dog’s barking has provoked outrage in rural Oise.The 19 elected officials of Feuquières, a village of 1,500 inhabitants, voted to introduce a decree banning dog owners from leaving their animals to bark for long periods of time, or risk a €68 fine for every offence.

The vote was prompted by a petition from residents complaining about one person in the village, who owns a number of animals. But attempts at conciliation failed, prompting councillors to take the rather drastic step of issuing a decree that would allow them to fine dog owners who leave their pets alone outside all day.

The bylaw says that it is forbidden, to leave a dog in its enclosure without its guardian being able to stop its prolonged or repeated barking at any time. Any dogs whose behaviour ‘disrupts the rest or relaxation of people’ must be kept inside.

But president of the association Pour la défense des droits des animaux, Stéphane Lamart said: “It’s completely amazing. You might as well stop church bells from ringing on Sunday morning. Dogs have a mouth, it’s for barking. People are very happy when they give the alert in case of a burglary.”

Mr Lamart has demanded a copy of the bylaw in order to take legal advice, and maybe contest it in the courts.

It is not the first time, an animal-related bylaw has caused controversy in Feuquières. In 2017, a local law banning people from feeding stray cats was scrapped as it ran counter to animal protection laws.

Source: Dogs barking could cost owners €68 in rural village

French priest files to delay release of sex abuse victim film premiering in Berlin 

The French release of a film based on real-life cases of sex abuse allegedly committed by a French priest, which is being premiered Friday at the Berlin film festival, could be delayed. Lawyers for the priest in question, who is accused of molesting more than 80 boys, say the film should not be shown until after his trial later this year.

Director Francois Ozon’s film By The Grace Of God tells the story of a group of survivors of abuse at the hands of Lyon-based priest, Bernard Preyant. Ozon worked in secret with several members of a survivor’s group that has gathered testimony of dozens of people who claim to have been abused by Preynat in Lyon.

Preynat is to be tried on sexual violence charges involving ten children. The allegations came out after a former scout, Francois Devaux went public in 2015 with allegations that the priest had abused him as a child 25 years earlier.

Preynat was suspended by the church later in 2015, and it later emerged that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, had confronted him about the allegations five years earlier, and later went to the Vatican, but never contacted law enforcement authorities.

Barbarin and five other church officials and members are waiting for a verdict on charges of covering up the abuse and failing to protect children.