Moments: faces of a journey

Movie
German title	Moments: faces of a journey
Original title	Visages Villages
Country of production	France
original language	French
Publishing year	2017
length	94 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	JR , ; Agnes Varda
script	JR, ; Agnes Varda
production	Rosalie Varda, ; Nadia Turincev, ; Olivier Père, ; Nichole Fu, ; Etienne Comar, ; Charles S. Cohen
music	Matthieu Chedid
camera	Roberto De Angelis, ; Claire Duguet, ; Julia Fabry, ; Nicolas Guicheteau, ; Romain Le Bonniec
cut	Maxime Pozzi-Garcia, ; Agnès Varda

Moments: Faces of a Journey (Original title: Visages Villages ) is a French documentary by street artist JR and filmmaker Agnès Varda , which premiered on May 19, 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival . The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary in 2018 .

Plot / content

In the film, the filmmaker Agnès Varda goes on a journey through rural France together with the photographer and street artist JR . Both share a passion for photography and for special places. They visit a wide variety of people and discover their stories, which they immortalize in larger-than-life portraits on facades, trains and containers. The film also tells the story of their improbable friendship, which came to their own surprise during filming.

production

"By enlarging the portraits, we make small moments big, in the lives of people who are not in the spotlight."

- Street artist JR

The film was produced by ARTE France Cinéma, among others. Directed by the photographer JR and Agnès Varda , who go on a journey together in the film. “Chance was always my best advisor,” explains the director, who in turn found her way to film as a photographer, to her young colleague JR. They found the models by the wayside, such as an animal-loving goat farmer or the last inhabitant of a demolition settlement who does not want to move out.

A starring role in the movie also play JR's trucks, a mobile instant automatic , the photos in large black and white posters transformed so Hilka Sinnig of ttt - title, theses, temperaments : "So it goes through the villages. Most of the people JR approaches like to be photographed. Varda's team is documenting the actions. ”JR and his people turned the entire settlement into a kind of stage, explains Sinnig. "By enlarging the portraits, we make small moments big in the lives of people who are not in the spotlight," said JR. “Everyone in the village knows them, but suddenly you look at them with different eyes. One talks about her image. And that's what the movie is about. That's what art is about. ”Gerhard Midding from Zeit Online explains that by sticking the recordings not only on ruins, freight containers or trains, but also on houses, they wear the face of their residents for a short time and thus underline the bond that exists between the two. Jörg Taszman from Deutschlandfunk Kultur notes that the original French title Visages Villages is not only more precise, but also more poetic, since the film is about faces in villages.

The film premiered on May 19, 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on June 28, 2017. At the beginning of September 2017 the film was screened at the Telluride Film Festival , at the end of the same month the film was presented at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and in October 2017 at the London Film Festival . The film was released in selected US cinemas on October 6, 2017 and in German cinemas on May 31, 2018.

reception

Reviews

The film has so far convinced all of the Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.9 out of a possible 10 points.

Hilka Sinnig from ttt - title, theses, temperament means, moments: Faces of a journey is not just a film about the charm of inconspicuous places and small people. It is also the story of a touching relationship between two artists who are separated by a half-century age difference and yet find a common language.

Philipp Holstein of RP Online explains that the other big topic of this film is impermanence. In this way, the film also becomes a storage medium and a pictorial biography about Agnès Varda , who sees poorly, can only move with difficulty and forgets a lot. Past and present are blurred, so Holstein continues: “You can see photos that Varda took of Jean-Luc Godard. You can hear stories about the villa in Nice that Varda rented a long time ago with her friends Godard and Anna Karina and her husband Jacques Demy. "

Jörg Taszman from Deutschlandfunk Kultur sums it up in his review: "A wonderful film that connects people and generations."