Whatever Works - Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh

22Agnès VardaCLEO FROM 5 TO 7 LE BONHEURVAGABOND THE GLEANERS AND IAgnès VardaNow acknowledged as a true pioneer of the NewWave (with La Pointe Courte, 1954), Agnès Vardafirmly takes her place among the major post-warFrench filmmakers. This short season represents theperfect introduction to this most innovative, originaland enduring of filmmakers (she is still working at afeisty 82), featuring three of her best known fictionfilms and three of her documentary essays, the genrein which she is perhaps better known.DIGITAL RESTORATIONCleo from 5 to 7 Cléo de 5 à 7Fri 21 to Thu 27 MayAgnès Varda • France/Italy 1962 • 1h30m • Digital projectionFrench with English subtitlesPG – Contains mild language and infrequent natural nudityCast: Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray,Dorothée Blank, Michel Legrand.Agnès Varda’s second feature remains a highlight of theextraordinary outpouring of French movies in the early 60s.It’s almost a film about nothing, with French chanteuse Cléo(Corinne Marchand) spending 90 minutes (not quite the 2hours of the title) wandering around Paris before she getsthe results of a medical test which will confirm whether ornot she has cancer. Cléo spends the time going to a fortuneteller, running an errand with a friend, playing her latestsong on a cafe jukebox and hoping someone will recogniseher. She gets no pity from her friends – only a stranger inthe park seems to offer much consolation. And in the end,Cléo has figured out how to face an uncertain future.Le bonheurFri 28 & Sat 29 MayAgnès Varda • France 1965 • 1h20mFrench with English subtitles • 15Cast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer,Olivier Drouot, Sandrine Drouot.The blissfully married François (French television starDrouot, acting with his own wife and children) startsan affair with Émilie (Boyer) with varied consequences.Under the guise of an apparently banal story of love andadultery, and idyllic surface prettiness, Varda’s third featurefilm trenchantly explores the myth of romance and theunderside of the ‘perfect’ family in 1960s France, with itsunthinking misogyny.Vagabond Sans toit ni loiSun 30 & Mon 31 MayAgnès Varda • France 1985 • 1h46m • 35mmFrench, Arabic and English with English subtitles • 15Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Setti Ramdane, Francis Balchère, Jean-Louis Perletti.Deservedly one of Varda’s best known films, Vagabond isamong the most powerful portraits of a woman in moderncinema. Mosaic-like, the film reconstructs the last weeks ofrebellious and nihilistic vagrant Mona (the young SandrineBonnaire, in a career-defining performance), inspired bya real case. Mona’s identity emerges from her impact onothers, many played by non-professionals. Set in a bleak,wintry South of France, Vagabond embeds Mona’s fate inthe region’s landscape and customs.The Gleaners and ILes glaneurs et la glaneuseTue 1 & Wed 2 JunAgnès Varda • France 2000 • 1h22mFrench with English subtitles • U • DocumentaryVarda’s groundbreaking and hugely successfuldocumentary explores the idea of ‘gleaning’, from theancient practice enshrined in paintings such as Jean-François Millet’s 1857 ‘Des Glaneuses’, to the victims oflate capitalism who scavenge in supermarket bins bothto survive and to denounce consumerist excess. Mixingdocumentary reportage and interviews with art andphotography, Varda’s investigation ranges widely acrossFrance, offering a poignant yet heart-lifting discourse onher relationship to others, her practice as a filmmaker andher own ageing.TICKETDEALSSee any three (or more) films in this season and get 15% offSee all six films in this season and get 25% offThese packages are available online, in person and on thephone, on both full price and concession price tickets.Tickets must all be bought at the same time.