'Faces Places': Feel-good French Documentary

Celebrating the Ordinary and the Forgotten

French title: Visages, Villages (2017)

Director: Agnes Varda

Intergenerational friendships are depicted all too rarely on screen or in books. When they do appear, that old, vapid image of an older character waving the younger off on their voyage of discovery and adventure is repetitively re-hashed. Happily, 'Faces, Places' offers a visionary divergence from this stale trend.

This is a French documentary, which follows an artistic collaboration between ninety-year-old film director and artist Agnes Varda and a photographer/artist called JR, who is significantly younger. The pair set out on an odyssey across the length and breadth of France in JR's van, which is equipped with a photo booth and a giant printer that churns out A1 sized images through a slit in the van's boot. His van is the perfect vehicle for this gentle pair with a powerful political vision and a mutual appreciation for each other's work.

From a former coal mining town in France's forgotten northern regions, to a small gravestone of ten headstones in the south - passing a chemical plant, a goat farm and an abandoned town in between - Varda and JR monumentalise the ordinary, the lost and the forgotten across the towns and villages of France's twenty-first century.

Far removed from the lionised streets of Paris, this is a film about how art can be used to celebrate and empower the ordinary French citizen. The politically relevant undertones that lie under the light-hearted playfulness that bounces between Varda and JR is poignant: especially when we consider that many of those interviewed may well be supporters of France's far-right party, the National Front.

Nevertheless, Varda has left the personal politics of those interviewed discrete in favour of prioritising a joy in the power of aesthetics to unite and bring joy. And Varda brings plenty of joy to this film.

As the more vocal of the two, Varda takes the lead during questioning with warm confidence and wise judgement. JR is both gentle and energetic. They playfully argue over his refusal to remove his dark sunglasses but also delve deeper into each other's lives, learning about each other's heartbreaks and sore spots.

I would love to see a British equivalent of this project, with two open-minded and creative spirits celebrating construction workers in Skelmersdale, farmers in Northampton and ex-miners in South Wales. This is a feel-good film because you leave it realising the power of art in appealing and empowering all; as opposed to just the cosmopolitan set in a few major cities.

Until then, we can be made entirely content with Varda's masterpiece documentary; the tip of an extraordinary body of work, where she has solidified her genius in creating films that combine social commentary with her distinctive experimental style. You will not be disappointed.

Watch online on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1-1svQwqgs