Faces Places

press release:

FACES PLACES (VISAGES VILLAGES)

France | 2017 | DCP | 89 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Agnès Varda

French New Wave legend Agnès Varda (Cléo from 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I) teams up with street photographer and artist JR, five decades her junior, for a whimsical road trip through rural France to create large-scale photographic portraits of ordinary people they encounter––farmers, waitresses, dockworkers’ wives, and many more. Faces Places is at once a vibrant, playful new work from one of cinema’s greatest treasures and a poignant reflection on friendship, aging, and loss. Winner, Golden Eye documentary prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. “Faces Places is unforgettable… once you have seen it you want to keep it with you, like a talisman or a souvenir.” (The New York Times)

Premiere Showcase is the Cinematheque’s effort to bring the boldest and most exciting new cinema back to the big screen. Crafted with the same curat­orial acuity we bring to our repertory series, Premiere Showcase presents exciting new work by contem­porary directors that would otherwise have no theatrical venue in the area. Our selections for this calendar begin with Agnès Varda’s whimsical road movie Faces Places. Also included are Aki Kaurismäki’s funny and moving The Other Side of Hope, shown in a rarefied new 35mm print; The Insult, a powerful new movie from Lebanon; and, part of our annual LACIS selections, new movies from South American directors Lucrecia Martel (Zama) and Daniela Thomas (Vazante).

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.