---
title: "Faces Places"
year: 2017
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/faces-places"
fi1m_score: 82
critics_score: 85
critics_reviews: 22
published: "2026-09-17T05:28:31.488006+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:43.647753+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Faces Places (2017)

Directed by Agnès Varda, JR · 1h 34m · Documentary

**Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 85 from 22 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two artists drive round France gluing enormous strangers to buildings, and the strangers cry

> Varda and JR drive a camera van through rural France and paste the faces of farmers and workers onto the walls they live behind. It is slight and occasionally pleased with itself, but the faces are enormous and so, unexpectedly, is the feeling.

## Synopsis

Agnès Varda (as herself), a veteran film director, and JR (as himself), a young street artist, set off across rural France in his van. The van is a camera: it photographs whoever climbs inside and produces portraits big enough to cover a wall. Their first stops are in the working-class north, in a coal town, where they meet Jeannine Carpentier (as herself), a woman who has lived in a row of miners’ houses for a long time. They photograph her and paste her face across the front of her home. Then they move on, to farms and to the docks, photographing farmers, workers and women who would otherwise never be photographed at all, and pasting the results onto buildings and shipping containers.

## Review

Agnès Varda made *Faces Places* with JR, a street artist a couple of generations younger than her. JR owns a van with a giant camera built into it. You sit inside it, it takes your photograph, and out comes a print large enough to cover a wall. The two of them drive this van around rural France, photograph whoever they meet, and paste the results, several storeys high, onto the walls the people live and work behind. That is the whole film. It runs 94 minutes, it is likeable from the first shot, and for perhaps a third of its length it is a good deal more than that.

The first stop is a coal town in the north, and a row of miners’ houses. Jeannine Carpentier has lived in one of them for a long time. Varda and JR photograph her and paste her face across the front of her house, the full height of the brick. When she comes out and sees it she cannot speak. Neither, for a moment, could we. It was the size that did it: a woman nobody has photographed in years, suddenly bigger than the building she lives in. The film repeats the trick a dozen times, and it is honest enough to show that not every subject is sure they like it.

The people are the point, and the film gives them room. A farmer who works a huge acreage alone from a tractor cab with a screen in it. A woman who keeps goats and will not burn off their horns, and gets a horned goat on her barn wall for her trouble. Women at the docks, photographed standing, then pasted full length onto a wall of stacked shipping containers. Varda asks short questions and lets people answer at length; JR works the ladder. Seven camera operators are credited, among them Roberto De Angelis and Claire Duguet, and the footage looks as if it was gathered on the move, in whatever light there was. The portraits themselves are black and white; the France around them is in colour.

Varda and Maxime Pozzi-Garcia cut it like a scrapbook. Each village gets a chapter, Varda talks over the joins, and Matthieu Chedid’s guitar score wanders in and out underneath. It is a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half, and that is also the film’s weakness. *The Gleaners and I* (2000) had a subject, people who live on what others throw away, and an argument about them. *The Beaches of Agnès* (2008) had her own life to put in order. This one has a method and a friend. Around the fifth or sixth village we caught ourselves admiring the pictures and waiting for the film to say something about them, and it did not.

The staged parts are the other problem. Varda and JR are filmed bickering, in a cemetery, on a beach, in the van, and the set-ups are visibly set up. The running jokes between them land the first time and are still being made at the end. Varda’s narration has a habit of telling us what the image has already shown. None of this is bad; it is simply less interesting than a farmer explaining why he no longer employs anyone, and the film keeps cutting away from the farmer to get back to the two of them.

What rescues it is Varda herself, and what she allows to be shown. Her eyesight is failing, and she says so on camera. She has spent a career looking at faces and she can no longer see them clearly at a distance, and she puts this plainly, without asking for sympathy. Late on, the road trip turns towards her own past and towards the cinema she came out of, in a way we will not describe. It is the one place the film’s good humour slips, and the best ten minutes in it.

See it with someone you have known for a long time and argued with for most of it. Certificate 12A, 94 minutes, and the largest faces in it belong to people you will not hear of again.

*Fi1m score 82, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are won over by Varda and JR’s road trip through rural France, pasting giant portraits of farmers, miners and other working people onto walls and shipping containers. The praise clusters on the pair themselves: the reviews return again and again to the friendship between a director nearing ninety and an artist decades her junior, and find it funny, tender and a little melancholy. Several read the portraits as political, a case for ordinary lives over celebrity and wealth, and most find Varda’s reflections on age, memory and her failing eyesight affecting rather than maudlin.

The spread is narrow: twenty-one of twenty-two reviews are positive and one is mixed. Reservations, where they exist, are mild. The AV Club finds it short of the essayistic point of view of Varda’s best documentaries, and The Times, alone in stopping at three stars, still grants it poignancy as a snapshot of a vanishing France. Nobody dislikes it; the disagreement is only over whether charm is enough.

### Reviews we read (22)

- **Little White Lies**, Sophie Monks Kaufman (4/5/5): The critic finds the film a singularly charming social document that captures Varda and JR's endearing odd-couple chemistry and their humanising art project. It highlights the tenderness in Varda's reflections on life, death, and connection amid the road-trip encounters. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/faces-places)
- **IndieWire** (A): Varda and JR's whimsical tour of the French countryside, pasting massive portraits of locals onto their environments, is magnificently moving, funny, life-affirming and altogether wonderful. The critic singles out the intergenerational chemistry and soul-stirring reminder of human connection through art. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/faces-places-review-agnes-varda-1201830084/)
- **Film Comment**, Jonathan Romney (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the joyful collaboration between Varda and JR as they photograph and monumentalize ordinary French people, highlighting themes of community, memory, and mortality in a breezy, generous film. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/film-week-faces-places/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Glenn Kenny (90/100, inferred): Varda, nearing 90, continues to make searching, compassionate and funny films, here collaborating with JR on a humanist road documentary that celebrates ordinary people through large-scale portraits. The film movingly pairs the artists while confronting aging, memory and friendship, ending on a note that blurs documentary and fiction. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/faces-places-2017)
- **Screen Daily** (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as an utterly charming road movie documentary full of puppy-dog energy and curiosity. It singles out the joyful celebration of friendship, art and life, while noting a lament for a disappearing France. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/faces-places-visages-villages-cannes-review/5118156.article)
- **Sight and Sound**, Sukhdev Sandhu (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the intuitive, collaborative road trip between Varda and JR as they connect with ordinary French people through large-scale portraits. It singles out the film's blend of collective joy, personal poignancy, and Varda's playful instinct for memory and improvisation. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/faces-places-review-agnes-varda-pastes-her-playfulness-over-french-landscapes)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (90/100, inferred): The film is a lovely addition to Varda's personal documentaries about French life, following the director and JR on a road trip through rural and working-class communities where they engage locals and post large photographic portraits. McCarthy highlights the charming, unplanned encounters and the special spin through France's backwaters. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/visages-villages-faces-places-review-1005799/)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic's Pick): At 89, Varda proves she has everything left to discover, teaming with JR for meandering road trips that turn ordinary encounters into powerful public art. The film reveals itself as a complex, radical work through its democratic, conversational approach to people and places. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/movies/review-faces-places-agnes-varda-jr-travel-in-the-present-glancing-at-the-past.html)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (90/100, inferred): Varda, at 88, remains ageless, conjuring another enchanting personalized documentary with JR that renders ordinary rural French lives large through epic portraits. The slender premise yields a profound, playful political statement about valuing everyday people over celebrity and wealth. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/visages-villages-review-agnes-varda-1202444461/)
- **Empire**, David Parkinson (85/100, inferred): Varda and JR form an empathetic team whose collaboration is provocative, poetic and poignant. The film blends whimsy with a sharp political edge while highlighting ordinary people's stories. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/faces-places-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (85/100, inferred): Varda and JR embark on a lovely, restorative road trip through French towns, plastering giant portraits on buildings and containers to celebrate overlooked people, especially women. Her fading eyesight and undimmed openness make the film an invigorating tribute to empathy and artistic collaboration. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-faces-places-review-20171013-story.html)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): The critic praises this beguiling essay/road movie for its warmth, playful spirit and the spectacular, moving giant portraits created by Varda and JR of ordinary French people. The collaboration between the veteran director and the young artist is singled out as unique and touching. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/20/faces-places-review-agnes-varda-jr-road-movie-documentary)
- **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (85/100, inferred): Varda and JR travel rural France creating heroic-scale portraits of ordinary workers, farmers and women, turning daily life into devotional images. The warm, celebratory film honors the heroism of everyday labor while becoming personal through Varda’s reflections on age and cinema history. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/agnes-varda-and-jrs-faces-places-honors-ordinary-people-on-a-heroic-scale)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (80/100, inferred): Varda and JR's road trip creates epic portraits of rural people that make viewers look and listen closely. The film is the most melancholy yet uplifting buddy movie of the year, with a moving climax involving Godard. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/faces-places-review-new-wave-legend-agnes-varda-takes-us-on-a-road-trip-with-a-difference-a3941991.html)
- **Time Out**, Anna Smith (4/5): The critic calls it a delightful documentary that captures the odd-couple road trip and its focus on villagers and their stories. It singles out Varda's compassionate exploration of compassion, ageing, memories and art through the giant portraits. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/faces-places)
- **Vulture** (80/100, inferred): The film doubles as Varda's artistic statement, a road movie and public-art project touring rural French villages to cover structures with giant likenesses of locals. It singles out the real sweetness in the intergenerational chemistry between Varda and JR and the deeply touching large-scale works. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/10/faces-places-a-road-movie-and-an-artistic-statement.html)
- **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (B): Varda and JR tour the French countryside in a giant-camera truck, creating wall-sized portraits while visiting farms, coal towns and other spots, with oodles of charm and moments of beauty. The review notes it lacks the essayistic point-of-view of Varda's best documentaries. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/arthouse-icon-agnes-varda-takes-a-wise-and-whimsical-ro-1819111583)
- **The Times**, Tom Shone (★★★): The review calls the film a poignant snapshot of a vanishing France, noting the powerful emotional effect of the giant portraits on their subjects and an undertone of elegy beneath its charming surface. The chemistry between the age-distant collaborators is highlighted positively. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/faces-places-review-agnes-vardas-poignant-snapshot-of-the-french-7rqb0h3t2)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (4.5/5): Varda and JR's road trip through France creates large-scale community portraits that blend accessibility with philosophical depth about home, visibility, and seeing the world differently. The film is warmly engaging and nostalgic without sentimentality, serving as a love letter to Varda's perspective. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/faces-places-2017-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
- **The Playlist**, Bradley Warren (85/100, inferred): Varda and JR's collaboration produces an endlessly charming documentary that looks forward and back with insight, blending whimsy, wisdom, and modern essay filmmaking. It highlights their complementary artistic sensibilities and intimate connections with people and places across France. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/agnes-vardas-whimsical-faces-places-is-endlessly-charming-cannes-review/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Steven Neish (4/5): The film is an intriguing and playful artistic journey that shines a light on overlooked rural communities through Varda and JR's collaboration. It celebrates ordinary people and their stories while highlighting the duo's genuine connection and creative impact. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/faces-places-review/)
- **The Skinny**, Jamie Dunn (4/5): The critic finds the whimsical road-trip documentary rewarding and moving, praising how Varda and JR turn ordinary people into icons while also celebrating Varda herself as a colossus of cinema. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/faces-places)

## Details

- **Director:** Agnès Varda, JR
- **Director:** Agnès Varda, JR
- **Writer:** Agnès Varda, JR
- **Cinematography:** Claire Duguet, Julia Fabry, Nicolas Guicheteau, Roberto De Angelis, Valentin Vignet, Romain Le Bonniec, Raphaël Minnesota
- **Editor:** Maxime Pozzi-Garcia, Agnès Varda
- **Music:** Matthieu Chedid
- **Producer:** Rosalie Varda
- **Cast:** Agnès Varda as Self; JR as Self; Patricia Mercier as Self; Amaury Bossy as Self; Claude Flaert as Self; Clemens Van Dungern as Self; Didier Campy Comte as Self; Jacky Patin as Self
- **Runtime:** 1h 34m
- **First release (France):** 19 May 2017
- **Genres:** Documentary
- **Box office:** $1 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7rFMO7ODBk

## Where to watch in the US

- Tubi: free, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $1.99, sd
- Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, sd
- Apple TV: buy $12.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BR, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, SE, SG, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2018: Best Documentary Feature Film (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *The Gleaners and I* (2000): Varda’s earlier road film, with a sharper argument about who gets left behind.
- *The Salt of the Earth* (2014): Wim Wenders on photographer Sebastião Salgado, whose portraits are as large in ambition as JR’s.
- *Cameraperson* (2016): Kirsten Johnson’s outtakes from a career behind the camera, assembled into a life.
- *Grey Gardens* (1975), Fi1m 86: Two women, one falling house, and a camera that lets them talk. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/grey-gardens.md)
- *Honeyland* (2019), Fi1m 82: A beekeeper in the Macedonian hills and the noisy family who move in next door. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/honeyland.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/faces-places