Kung Fu Master | |
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![]() Film poster | |
Directed by | Agnès Varda |
Written by | Jane Birkin Agnès Varda |
Starring | Jane Birkin Mathieu Demy |
Cinematography | Pierre-Laurent Chénieux |
Edited by | Marie-Josée Audiard |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Kung Fu Master (stylised as Kung-fu Master!, also known as Le petit amour in France) is a 1988 French drama film directed by Agnès Varda. [1] It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival. [2]
Mary-Jane (Jane Birkin) comes across Julien (Mathieu Demy) during a party her teenage daughter Lucy throws at their home. Julien has drunk too much and Mary-Jane induces vomiting to help him feel better. Intrigued by him she goes to visit Lucy at school to see if she can see him again and almost hits him with her car. On the pretext of seeing if he's alright Mary-Jane takes Julien to a café where he plays his favourite arcade game, Kung Fu Master . Intrigued by Julien and knowing she wants to see him again Mary-Jane goes looking for other places with the game. Before she can think of another reason to see Julien however he comes to her home and they spend the day together shopping. At the end of the day Julien kisses Mary-Jane's hand.
At school Julien and Lucy must work together on a project and because he is so eager to work on the project she thinks that he has a crush on her.
Mary-Jane and Julien continue to think of ways to be near one another. When Mary-Jane overhears Lucy talking about Julien missing school she visits his home to give him his homework and allows him to fondle her breast. Later he invites her out to celebrate with him and takes her to a hotel where he kisses her. Mary-Jane tepidly resists but later slaps him after he begins smoking in the elevator and runs away from him.
While working on a project with Lucy, Julien learns that Lucy is going to England with her family over the upcoming holidays. Julien manages to get Lucy to invite him along. On Easter, while she is hiding eggs, Mary-Jane is surprised by Julien. The two end up kissing and are discovered by Lucy who is horrified by the fact that her mother is kissing a 14 year old boy. After telling her mother what has happened, Mary-Jane is encouraged by her to take Julien and her youngest daughter Lou to a remote island where the family owns a home to try and play out their flirtation. On the island the two of them declare their love for one another and enjoy a close relationship. At the end of their time on the island Mary-Jane worries that she'll lose Julien and he'll forget about her but he promises to love her forever.
After their return from the island Julien's mother threatens to press charges while Mary-Jane loses custody of Lucy. Mary Jane never hears from him again.
Meanwhile at an arcade Julien finally wins the Kung Fu Master game. He asks an arcade employee to call Mary-Jane and tell him that he has won but the employee gives up after he calls and Lou answers the phone. Later at his new school when other boys ask if he's ever had a girlfriend he speaks disparagingly of Mary-Jane saying she was just a bored housewife he once slept with.
Birkin conceived of the film while Agnès Varda was filming her for the documentary Jane B. par Agnès V. [3] Most of the cast were taken from Birkin and Varda's family, with Birkin's real life daughters and parents playing her daughters and parents in the film. Charlotte Gainsbourg later admitted to disliking both the filming of Jane B. par Agnès V. and Kung Fu Master as Varda and her film crew remained camped in her home for a year in order to complete the projects. [4]
In 2015, both Kung Fu Master and Jane B. par Agnès V. were acquired for U.S. distribution by Cinelicious Pics. [5] The films enjoyed a brief theatrical re-release before being streamed on the movie streaming service Fandor. [6] Varda expressed frustration at the film's limited release saying "I can get the Palme d’Or, but I can’t get exhibition, so it’s a contradiction." [7]
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema.
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" at the age of 12, she released an album with her father at the age of 15. More than 20 years passed before Gainsbourg released albums as an adult to commercial and critical success. She has also appeared in many films, including the "Depression" trilogy directed by Lars von Trier, and has received a César Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award.
Agnès Varda was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Her films focused on achieving documentary realism, addressing women's issues, and other social commentary, with a distinctive experimental style.
Jacques Demy was a French director, lyricist, and screenwriter. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrated for their visual style, which drew upon diverse sources such as classic Hollywood musicals, the plein-air realism of his French New Wave colleagues, fairy tales, jazz, Japanese manga, and the opera. His films contain overlapping continuity, lush musical scores and motifs like teenage love, labor rights, chance encounters, incest, and the intersection between dreams and reality. He was married to Agnès Varda, another prominent director of the French New Wave. Demy is best known for the two musicals he directed in the mid-1960s: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).
Kung Fu Master. or derivatives thereof, may refer to:
Mathieu Demy is a French actor, film director and producer.
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Lou Doillon is a French-English singer, actress and model.
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Judy Campbell was an English film, television and stage actress, widely known to be Noël Coward's muse. Her daughter is the actress and singer Jane Birkin, her son the screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin, and among her grandchildren are the actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, the late poet Anno Birkin, the artist David Birkin and the late photographer Kate Barry.
Lucy Gordon was an English actress and model. She became a face of CoverGirl in 1997 before starting an acting career. Her first film was Perfume in 2001 before going on to have small roles in Spider-Man 3, Serendipity and The Four Feathers. Gordon had played the actress and singer Jane Birkin in the film Gainsbourg, a biopic of singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Before the film was released, she hanged herself in her flat in Paris on 20 May 2009.
"Lemon Incest" is a single recorded by French father and daughter Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was recorded in 1984 and released as a single from Serge's 1985 album Love on the Beat and on Charlotte's 1986 debut album Charlotte For Ever, marking her musical debut.
One Hundred and One Nights is a 1995 French comedy film directed by Agnès Varda. A light-hearted look at 100 years of commercial cinema, it celebrates in vision and sound favourite films from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA. It was entered into the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a 2010 French drama film written and directed by Joann Sfar. It is a biopic of French singer Serge Gainsbourg.
Kate Barry was a British fashion photographer, who worked for Vogue and The Sunday Times Magazine.
Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye is a 1973 Gothic horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti.
Cinelicious Pics is a distribution wing of the post-production company Cinelicious, launched by Paul Korver and Dennis Bartok, former American Cinematheque head programmer.
Jane B. par Agnès V. is a 1988 French docudrama film directed by Agnès Varda and starring French-English actress Jane Birkin. The film was conceived when Birkin admitted to Varda she was apprehensive about turning 40 and Varda told her it was a beautiful age and the perfect time to make a portrait on Birkin's life.
Les Créatures is a 1966 fantasy drama film written and directed by Agnès Varda that recounts a story of a couple who have just moved to a new town and been in a car accident. The wife, Mylène Piccoli, loses her voice in the accident and communicates through writing. The husband, Edgar Piccoli, is a science fiction writer working to produce his next book.