Film Review: Faces Places
Almost immediately into the film, I was overwhelmed by nostalgia. One was for France, even though I’d only been absent three years, the time lengthened due to the pandemic. The other was for the kind of road trips I frequently took, spanning the mid-1990s to early 2000s, through the US Southwest, Mexico and Central America, either solo or with a longtime close friend. Somehow it was easier then to throw away responsibilities, leave them outside a protected time, and just wander in unknown places with no agenda. Having done so, it’s almost magical what or who turns up, and how life-changing insights surface.
I was a shoo-in for Faces Places, or Visages Villages. It’s about serial road trips, tucked away places — little known or forgotten by the wider world — people and things in plain view but largely overlooked, another era, no part of pop culture…but significant. All that and so much more.
The film came recommended, but initially I wasn’t sure what I was watching. I had no preconceived notion of the two featured characters, nothing to attach to them. I didn’t know either by name. The age difference was decades. It turned out these two oddly matched people had more in common and less to set them apart. They were vague about how they initially met or what brought them together.
JR’s identity is hidden by his ever-present hat and dark glasses. He’s a French photographer-street artist in his early thirties whose work is easily identifiable and spans the globe. Agnès Varda was nearly 90 when this documentary was made, a renowned Belgian-French filmmaker known particularly for the French New Wave films of the 1950s.
The pair travel across France to out-of-the-way villages, towns and rural communities in JR’s photography studio van. Much is made of the creative process, subtle political statements and collaboration. In a mining village soon to be demolished, an elderly woman hangs onto her home and memories, her larger-than-life portrait is elevated further when pasted onto the two-story exterior of the dwelling. Visits to two goat dairies produce a gargantuan image celebrating a goat with horns in contrast to the farm where horns are removed at birth, supposedly to make the goats more docile. It goes on, too, with communities actively taking part and having a good time.
What else can added to my “so much more” list that’s significant? Implicitly, it’s about fun, the beauty of growing a relationship, poignant memories, aging, impermanence and what happens when one is truly seen. It brings me back to the pure magic of road trips and what may be created or resolved.
The film was released in 2017 to much acclaim. In 2019, Agnès Varda passed after having made one more film. Faces Places is available for streaming online.