KUNG-FU MASTER!

KUNG-FU MASTER!, 1987
France | DCP, Color, 80' | French, English
Cast: Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg

According to Agnès Varda, the film is a fictional family project with respect to its cast accompanying Jane Birkin. In the film, Jane Birkin steps in front of the camera with her two real daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, and plays Mary Jane, a single mother of two girls. Mary Jane falls in love with Julien, played by Varda’s son Mathieu Demy, a friend of one of her daughters. But is this really love? Or is it a middle-aged woman’s attempt to turn back time? Taking place during the time when AIDS was spreading fear across the world, the film is a rare investigation on growing old and loneliness, innocence and love as well as an expose that brings the subjectivity of women to the forefront.