1988 | France | Fiction

Kung-Fu Master!

  • French English 79 mins
  • Director | Agnès Varda
  • Writer | Agnès Varda
  • Producer | -

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

Made concurrently with Agnès Varda’s portrait of Jane Birkin, Jane B. par Agnès V., Kung-Fu Master! is a true family affair, achieving a sense of of lived-in intimacy by casting the actor’s real-life relatives, including daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, as themselves. Varda and Birkin give the familiar theme of a misunderstood couple searching for a place where their love can survive a provocative twist in this daring romance, in which Birkin (who wrote the story that provided the inspiration for the film) plays a middle-aged woman involved with a fourteen-year-old, video game–obsessed boy (Varda’s son, Mathieu Demy). The taboo relationship plays out with supreme delicacy and restraint, as Varda transforms the explosive premise into a disarmingly tender portrait of a woman’s search for lost youth.

Love Youth Taboo Loneliness Desire
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION