On this page: HAIL SATAN? | JONATHAN AGASSI SAVED MY LIFE | VARDA BY AGNES

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One of their first protests was against the installation of a Ten Commandments monument outside a state capitol, demanding that a statue of goat-demon Baphomet is also installed on constitutional grounds. It worked: the Ten Commandments were removed. Bookending this doc with two of these campaigns provides narrative momentum, vividly seen in the group's fast growth from three people to more than 50,000 members in chapters around the world. The film includes fly-on-the-wall segments, to-camera interviews and archive clips edited together in a way that cleverly catches the good humour of a group that enjoys laughing at themselves and at the fact that others take them so seriously.

These ironies are scattered through the film, as their accusers are clearly far more hateful than they are. And by simply using the word "satan", they stoke astonishingly levels of superstitious fear, even though they only use the word's literal meaning: adversary. So it's doubtful that most on the religious right will bother to see what this group actually stands for. Their tenets are actually more Christian than those of big churches who are trashing the US Constitution by creating a theocracy.

The doc's most telling segment is its tracing of the historical roots of America as a "Christian nation", which didn't begin with the founding fathers. It was actually part of the Red Scare of the 1950s, as "In God We Trust" was added to US currency, "under God" was inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance and Cecil B DeMille created the Ten Commandments monuments used by state capitols as a movie tie-in stunt. And it's another irony that it has taken a group of satanists to proclaim the truth.

themes, language, nudity

25.Jun.19

The camera follows Jonathan between Israel, where he lives with his mother Anna, and Germany, where his estranged father Raviv is. He's a huge star in the gay porn world, which allows him to behave like a diva. He's remarkably honest about all of this with his mother, although when he shows her his new film, he skips the sex scenes. But he tries on provocative outfits for her to critique (his brother and sister are more shocked). And long before the film reveals it, it's clear that he has a serious drug problem.

Eventually the camera watches him down pills, snort cocaine, smoke meths and even shoot up, then unblinkingly records the awful results. It's rare to see a film take such a straightforward, unpreachy approach to this behaviour, showing a real person almost killing himself right on camera. The question perhaps is whether Heymann is exploiting Agassi's pain for cinematic reportage, or whether this unvarnished footage has a stronger impact than preaching would. Heymann is just as honest with the nudity, but shies away from actual sex.

Part of what makes this such uncomfortable viewing is Agassi's affable presence, smiling and generous, still grappling with his troubled relationship with his father and a difficult childhood during which he was badly bullied for being too feminine in a macho society. It was escorting that led Agassi into drugs, not the porn industry, which sacked him when addiction compromised his work. The film doesn't mention it, but Agassi's drug use cost him his career, and he's now sober.

themes, language, sexuality, violence, drugs

21.Mar.19

Varda also traces her career as a filmmaker from the 1950s to landmark films such as Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Le Bonheur (1965), playfully offbeat work like Lions Love ... and Lies (1969) and Jane B for Agnes V (1988), and biographical films including Jacquot de Nantes (1991) and The Beaches of Agnes (2008). Some combine her passions for images with ordinary people, like Daguerreotypes (1976) and Faces Places (2017), while The Gleaners and I (2000) reveals her ongoing interest in recycling themes and materials in her art. And she invites Bonaire to revisit their groundbreaking road movie Vagabond (1985) together.

Of course, this is fascinating for Varda fans, especially as it offers glimpses of unseen short films and unavailable features. And through it all, she holds the audience in the palm of her hand as she discusses the nature of cinema as filtered through her distinct point of view. Her observations are simple and powerful, always delivered with a playful glint and edited together with witty sense of irony. Her career is a wonderful collection of provocations, each conveyed with a warmly open-handed attitude.

So it's fitting that this is her final film, summing up her approach to the variety of her life's work. From her knowing photographs of actors and filmmakers to museum pieces like her cinema shacks, constructed from recycled old prints of her movies, she forces the audience to look at both the world and cinema itself from new angles. And this documentary preserves her iconic talent for all time, an essential film school lecture that no one who loves the movies should miss.

themes, language, violence, nudity

2.Jul.19