This Oscar-nominated documentary by nonagenarian film-maker Agnès Varda and visual artist JR follows the pair as they travel around France making chance connections and artworks – it feels a little like a Gallic version of Andrew Kötting’s Gallivant. It’s an amiable picture, largely carried by Varda’s lively intellect and sense of mischief and JR’s empathetic, generous work – he takes giant portraits of the people he meets and pastes them on buildings.
But there are a couple of contradictions – first, between the professed emphasis on spontaneity and a narration that is so obviously – and clunkily – scripted. And for all the laudable talk of meeting strangers, there’s also something rather inward looking about the way the film is filtered through the friendship between Varda and JR.
