I don’t know about you, but expectations have a way of interfering with my enjoyment of a film, so I try my best to set them aside and approach each new movie with an open mind. Still, I must confe…
The film’s title was an enticement — a clear homage to “Jane B. by Agnès V.,” a playful postmodern essay-film by the late, great Agnès Varda, in which the two women conspire to deconstruct Birkin’s star status, somehow augmenting her mystery in the process.
responds as sincerely as possible to personal questions. At the very least, Gainsbourg ought to have engaged a sound professional. The image and audio are so compromised in several scenes that one wonders why she bothered to include them at all. Over the years, Birkin has indulged countless photo shoots and interviews, her every move scrutinized by the tabloids.
The most engaging scene involves their visit to the flat at 5 bis rue de Verneuil, Birkin’s first time back to the Paris apartment she shared with Serge Gainsbourg all those years ago, a black-walled cabinet of curiosities that their daughter has kept practically untouched. For decades, she has dreamed of turning the location into a museum; beyond the “Lying With You” music video, which she directed, few have seen behind the graffiti-covered outer walls.