Cinema
Cinema, like music, is a big part of our company’s culture. In stores, it is the film posters that are usually noticed first! They have been part of the agnès b. décor from early on and her collection of original film posters is now second to none! Her love of black and white films, the casual elegance of the New Wave, the straight lines of her cut, and the fashion films she directs herself, all pay homage to cinema. It has always been an instinctive source of inspiration for the designer.
agnès b. wardrobe for films!
In the middle of the sixties, William Klein asked agnès b. to realize the clothes of Who are you Polly Maggoo?, because they have in common “this taste of the black and white stripes”. One day, by surprise, agnès recognized one of her watches on Fanny Ardant’s wrist in Vivement dimanche ! from François Truffaut. Later, it is Quentin Tarantino, still unknown, who came to ransack the Los Angeles shop for Reservoir Dogs. Since then, Harvey Keitel became one of her friends and John Travolta always orders her, ten years later, the black jacket with the leather collar of Pulp Fiction. Also Jim Jarmusch, Robert De Niro and David Lynch – that she dressed for twenty five years with her Planet shirt, her thin tie with black jacket. Agnès baptizes her shirts Coppola, her jackets Scarlett, her dresses Vitti or her shirts Pasolini and prints Dennis Hopper, Jonas Mekas, Harmony Korine or David Lynch’s artworks on t-shirts.
Je m’appelle Hmmm…
The first feature film directed by agnès b. is released in France on Wednesday April 23rd, 2014. Je m’appelle Hmmm…(My Name Is Hmmm…) is a fiction starring Douglas Gordon, Lou-Lélia Demerliac, Sylvie Testud, Jacques Bonnaffé, Marie-Christine Barrault and Jean-Pierre Kalfon. It has been presented at the Venice Mostra, at the New York Film Festival, at the MoMa, at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, at Tokyo Filmex, at Glasgow Film Festival and at Hong Kong Film Festival. Synopsis : A fiction. An 11 year old runaway, the oldest daughter of three. An absent mother, an abusive father, a grandmother too pure to imagine what is going on. A field trip, the girl disappears… she has found refuge in a truck, an initiatory journey, a chance meeting, new encounters, a wonderful and tragic road movie with a Scottish truck driver, “when love just happens” “I wanted to make a film against prejudice and show that one should be careful not to make hasty judgments. You risk picking the wrong target. I wanted to show this journey as an “out-of-time” period… and also show the intensity of their mutual love, so silent, so pure, and evident. Of course this is not my own personal story, but I know what I’m talking about.” agnès b.
Collection DVD "agnès b. cinema!"
In 2008, Potemkine and agnès b. have joined their forces to create the agnès b. Cinéma DVD collection with a common desire to focus attention on strong, original, rare films from any everywhere. Taking mutual advantage of their expertise and financial means to propose around 100 titles released, between great classics (Marcel Camus, Jean Epstein, Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrei Tarkovski…), rareties and discoveries (Alan Clarke, Jonas Mekas, Nicolas Roeg, Roy Andersson or Harmony Korine) and top-notch novelties (Leos Carax, Lars Von Trier, David Lynch). Regularly acclaimed by the press, the collection was awarded Best DVD boxset from the French Movie Critic’s Guild for the integral Eric Rohmer (2013) boxset, for the Werner Herzog boxsets vol 1, 2 and 3 and the Curiosity Award of the year for the Kenneth Anger, The Magick Lantern Cycle (2015) boxset.
La Cinémathèque française
agnès b. is at The Cinémathèque française’s side for a long time and is happy to have been part, as of its creation, of “les Amis de La Cinémathèque française”. Already partner of the Jacques Tati’s exhibition in 2009, watching over L’Autre Ciné-Club since its birth in 2012, agnès b. is proud to accompany some of the big exhibitions of this institution such as Scorsese, The exhibition (2015), Gus Van Sant (2016), Mômes et Cie (2017) or still Chris Marker (2017).
Film Festival
After helping wrap up films and contributing to many cinematographic projects, agnès b. contributes today to movies broadcast and brings her support to many film festivals such as the International Festival of Sarajevo, la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs of Cannes, FID Marseille, or CINEMED, Festival of the Mediterranean cinema of Montpellier.
Since 1993, Sarajevo Film Festival
Faithful godmother of the Sarajevo Film Festival since 1996, agnès b. received in 2014, for the 20 anniversary of the festival, the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo alongside Mirsad Purivatra, director of the festival. Trophy of this prize, “The Heart of Sarajevo” is as the “Golden Palm” of Cannes, biger and faithful reproduction of the heart created by agnès b. in 1993, as soon as the siege begun. Sold in all the agnès b. shops, the money raised was donated to ” First Urgency “, NGO created at that time which bring foods and medicine to the inhabitants of the city. Nowadays, proceeds of the sales of the heart are donated to “Reconstruire la Bosnie-Herzégovine par l’ Education” association, created by General Diviak. “I gave my heart to Sarajevo” says agnès b. about this heart which became the city symbol. Simple and faithful…
agnès b. tribute to cinema!
agnès b. likes the cinema! “The most creative, the most true and the most intuitive of the lovers of the cinema”, as said Gilles Jacobs, president of the Cannes film festival at the time, help many film festivals (Semaine de la Critique, American Film Institute, Festival de Sarajevo). And if the 7th art inspires her and pays her regularly tributes via invitations to white cards for example, the stylist creates regularly collages poster which come to underline her love for the cinema and to decorate the walls of her shops.