1981 Directed by Agnès Varda
Venturing from Venice Beach to Watts, Varda looks at the murals of LA as backdrop to and mirror of the city’s many cultures. She casts a curious eye on graffiti and photorealism, roller disco & gang violence, evangelical Christians, Hare Krishnas, artists, angels and ordinary Angelenos.
Mural Murals, 墙的呢喃, Стенно изкуство, 벽, 벽들
Canada
Canada
Seeing the city I live in at another time is like magic through Varda's eyes. She's so good at capturing the spirit and diversity of Los Angeles just through the art in public spaces and her ultra-involved documentary style. It's so wonderful to see. Making a mural is a little piece of permanence, a tiny chapter submitted into a city's almanac. I love them. :)
if art is an expression of people and histories and feelings then public space is just another canvas.
so delightful and heartwarming, you can really feel the compassion agnès varda has for the subjects of the film. this would make a great double feature with faces places in looking at the interactions of art and the people behind them.
Once again Agnes Varda gets just about anyone and everyone from Venice to Compton to open up about their lives and art. I mean, if a petite joyeuse French lady walked up to you with a camera and asked you if you wanted to answer some questions for her movie, would you say NO? It's amazing what Varda gets her subjects to gab about, from born again Christian symbolism to gang violence to preserving heritage through murals. After peeping both Varda's fiction and non-fiction work, I have to say I prefer these almost video-essays. Her personality really shines through in both the striking shot composition and voice over and even that strange synth music with a dude whispering over it. The world really is an interesting and exciting place if ya just open yourself up to it and stop and look and listen!
like always, agnès varda approaches everything with such curiosity and attentiveness. you can just feel how much she cares about these murals, but most importantly, all the people behind them.
Using the images of one visual medium - film - Agnès Varda creates a lively optical homage to another - murals.
With a French title, “Mur Murs,” which is a pun translating to ‘whispering walls,’ Varda captures an unspoken-of history that is hidden in plain view.
That history is of chicanos, blacks, Indians, Asians, and every other ethnicity that makes up the multicolored palate of Los Angeles. While their stories might not appear in school syllabi, they are depicted in vibrant paintings that live on streets — neighbors to their subjects, and creators.
Varda, on her second Los Angeles sojourn - this time, living in Venice Beach - had originally traveled back to California to film a documentary about a…
If I could have just one crumb of Varda’s ability to find the beauty in any abstract idea as seen in her mind's eye and connect these images to a higher meaning that all of us can feel some concrete relation to, I would die happy knowing I had made a positive impact on the world.
One of those Varda movies that is just so full of curiosity and always expanding gaze. It is about public space, men's intervention in it and how it affects the comes and goings and she fills it with a sense of life, most movies can't get close to. I love the warm colors.
The more I see, the more certain I am in my belief that Varda was the master of cinema
thankful for agnès for capturing these murals so beautifully while also letting us to see the people behind them. part of the beauty of public art is that it’s inevitable that it will be changed or possibly disappear over time, but agnès gave these murals their moment by capturing them, and gave them an extended life.
"War games begin in childhood among the dragons and skeletons"
Agnes Varda takes us on a tour of the murals of Las Angeles, bringing her signature curiosity to bear in exploring the story behind the pieces of art and the people who created them.
Mur Murs is worth watching for the beauty of the art alone. Varda's commentary only makes it all the more so. She contrasts the art of the street in clear opposition to that of the heavily curated gallery system. These pieces provide us with the representation missing in establishment galleries and serve as a way to express the voice and opinions of minorities and women who are so often excluded from the narrative. In capturing these…
