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March 2005 French Film Festival, March 6, French New Wave of Cinema After watching the four documentaries of Mother Agnes Varda's
1967 "Uncle Janko", 1982 "Ulysses", 2000 "The Scavengers", 2002 "Two Years Later" The
filming time span of the films, which shows Varda, and the Varda I saw at the scene, I have been unable to guess her age, and therefore I can't judge the age of Varda at the time of each film.
Uncle Yanko didn't feel much, and felt Varda's playfulness, but it was a little jerky. The life of a painter, even if it is different from ordinary people, can still be imagined. I remember the fishing boat where the old man lived, and the symbol that probably belongs to him, an abstracted sun (like Hans Christian Andersen's painting).
There is a dialogue in Ulysses that is very clear. Varda asked the grown-up Ulysses if he remembered fragments of those pictures from his childhood, and Ulysses replied that he forgot. The ensuing questions, such as, was that your childhood, how did you forget, etc., felt a kind of questioning and compulsion on the interlocutor from Varda. Following a series of splicing of historical events in the same period, it seems that Varda is asking a question, past, forgotten or preserved.
Ulysses was filmed in 1982, and the scavengers were filmed in 2000. In the past 20 years, between the two films, Varda's changes are also very clear. The peaceful conversation, warm words and occasional personal flashes, still playful but not jerky, moved me to watch, and really liked this old lady. I think other people in the movie theater should not feel bad.
I don't think such an individual vision in the scavenger is bad. I even think it is an excellent expression and service of an individual to the society. Those playful clips and expressions on the highway, which are purely personal, seem to tell the audience that this is nothing more than a record of one person's itinerary. But she collects similar images that surround us on her trip, and what she organizes and presents to us is some beautiful details, such as heart-shaped potatoes, and the singing of a scavenger's home. When these details are gathered together, what it presents is no longer as messy and dirty as we see or imagine on a daily basis, and it will help us ease the psychological conflict when facing these people and things.
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