1 00:00:33,784 --> 00:00:35,952 We had to trim this tree back. 2 00:00:36,078 --> 00:00:38,579 It was blocking all the light. 3 00:00:43,585 --> 00:00:48,089 I set out on a series of trips, filming here and there... 4 00:00:49,216 --> 00:00:52,301 faces and words, museums, rivers, and art. 5 00:00:59,685 --> 00:01:02,562 I listened to people I met -- sometimes by chance -- 6 00:01:02,813 --> 00:01:04,939 AGNÈS VARDA FROM HERE TO THERE 7 00:01:05,065 --> 00:01:07,316 especially artists whose work I like. 8 00:01:24,001 --> 00:01:26,043 When I returned from my first trip, 9 00:01:26,169 --> 00:01:28,421 the tree already had new shoots. 10 00:01:29,590 --> 00:01:32,925 I continued my travels, by train or plane, 11 00:01:33,051 --> 00:01:36,470 filming in every city, not to file a report, 12 00:01:36,597 --> 00:01:39,849 but to capture fragments, moments, people. 13 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:42,101 The tree was coming back to life. 14 00:01:42,894 --> 00:01:45,438 I came and went... 15 00:01:45,564 --> 00:01:49,025 and Jean-Baptiste and I edited the material I'd gathered. 16 00:01:53,822 --> 00:01:57,491 But long before I completed my journeys and my work, 17 00:01:57,743 --> 00:01:59,994 which lasted well over a year, 18 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,623 the tree, with new shoots and leaves, 19 00:02:03,957 --> 00:02:08,127 had grown back all its foliage in less than three months. 20 00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:11,631 You see the process here in under two minutes. 21 00:02:11,757 --> 00:02:15,593 And viewers will see these chronicles over several days. 22 00:02:16,261 --> 00:02:19,347 So this series shoots and leaves, so to speak. 23 00:02:22,476 --> 00:02:25,561 In this last episode... 24 00:02:25,854 --> 00:02:28,773 we have Los Angeles, the painter Van der Weyden, 25 00:02:28,940 --> 00:02:32,151 Avignon on the Rhone, then Mexico, 26 00:02:32,277 --> 00:02:35,321 then back to Paris for skulls and vanitas. 27 00:02:35,489 --> 00:02:38,157 Off we go. It'll be quite a trip. 28 00:02:40,786 --> 00:02:43,162 Long hours in the air. 29 00:02:43,455 --> 00:02:46,290 I really enjoy this time out of time. 30 00:02:47,167 --> 00:02:49,502 I'm going to Los Angeles for a short stay. 31 00:02:50,253 --> 00:02:53,005 First, I see the Pacific Ocean again... 32 00:02:53,507 --> 00:02:56,133 some palm trees, Venice... 33 00:02:56,718 --> 00:02:58,260 the piers... 34 00:02:58,470 --> 00:02:59,970 and Santa Monica... 35 00:03:00,555 --> 00:03:04,183 where my friends Patricia Knop and Zalman King live. 36 00:03:04,726 --> 00:03:06,852 This is their garden. 37 00:03:07,354 --> 00:03:09,397 He's a producer and director. 38 00:03:09,564 --> 00:03:12,775 She's a screenwriter and former sculptress. 39 00:03:13,527 --> 00:03:15,319 When she was young, 40 00:03:15,445 --> 00:03:18,322 she wanted to make reality larger than life. 41 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:22,451 She used her family as models. 42 00:03:24,246 --> 00:03:26,038 First, her lover Zalman. 43 00:03:32,879 --> 00:03:35,631 Later her daughters and close friends. 44 00:03:49,563 --> 00:03:51,230 Her parents too. 45 00:03:53,567 --> 00:03:55,901 Patricia's sculpture of herself 46 00:03:56,027 --> 00:03:58,362 reigns over this museum-house. 47 00:04:02,409 --> 00:04:06,078 She has also collected angels of all sizes. 48 00:04:51,792 --> 00:04:55,294 Birds and cats live here together peacefully. 49 00:04:56,087 --> 00:04:58,380 She brings the smallest angels out for air. 50 00:05:00,842 --> 00:05:02,968 She tries out some backdrops 51 00:05:03,136 --> 00:05:06,514 in the form of paintings she buys at yard sales. 52 00:05:16,399 --> 00:05:19,151 Patricia likes naive art. 53 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,113 Her daughter Chloe does too. 54 00:06:08,994 --> 00:06:11,704 Armistead makes his own frames. 55 00:06:59,085 --> 00:07:00,920 Another "naive" artist, 56 00:07:01,171 --> 00:07:04,673 a hero of outsider art, built towers in Watts. 57 00:07:05,967 --> 00:07:08,928 He was a bricklayer of Italian origin... 58 00:07:09,262 --> 00:07:10,971 Simon Rodia. 59 00:07:15,435 --> 00:07:18,812 The towers have been restored and fenced in. 60 00:07:19,189 --> 00:07:21,523 You pay to visit them. 61 00:07:21,775 --> 00:07:23,525 Forty years ago, 62 00:07:23,652 --> 00:07:27,780 I remember stepping over railroad tracks to see them. 63 00:07:28,031 --> 00:07:30,783 People were camped out below. 64 00:07:31,785 --> 00:07:35,287 Rodia built these monuments on evenings and Sundays. 65 00:07:37,332 --> 00:07:40,793 He reminds me of the postman Ferdinand Cheval, 66 00:07:40,919 --> 00:07:45,464 who built his Ideal Palace with stones gathered in a wheelbarrow 67 00:07:45,924 --> 00:07:48,634 on his way home from his mail route. 68 00:08:08,321 --> 00:08:11,156 There's something else to see in Watts. 69 00:08:11,449 --> 00:08:14,618 Past houses and housing projects, 70 00:08:14,744 --> 00:08:16,745 we reach Nickerson Gardens. 71 00:08:18,957 --> 00:08:22,001 These walls stand in memory of the local dead, 72 00:08:22,669 --> 00:08:25,421 victims of gang warfare. 73 00:08:26,381 --> 00:08:30,551 In the late 1970s in East L.A., 74 00:08:31,011 --> 00:08:34,346 I filmed murals painted for the dead of rival gangs. 75 00:08:38,059 --> 00:08:40,269 Gang members were called "homeboys." 76 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,272 They'd paint the memorials themselves. 77 00:08:44,774 --> 00:08:47,693 Here in Watts it's very different. They write. 78 00:08:48,278 --> 00:08:51,530 We see only the names of those killed. 79 00:08:52,198 --> 00:08:55,659 A terrible list of names and nicknames. 80 00:08:56,036 --> 00:08:57,703 A monument of names. 81 00:10:58,158 --> 00:11:01,994 Back to Venice, where Jim Morrison lived. 82 00:11:02,871 --> 00:11:04,788 He too is gone... 83 00:11:04,914 --> 00:11:06,665 but not forgotten. 84 00:11:08,877 --> 00:11:12,212 There he is. Jim. Unforgettable. 85 00:11:15,508 --> 00:11:17,176 Back to the palm trees... 86 00:11:17,510 --> 00:11:19,928 Venice Pier, my base... 87 00:11:20,096 --> 00:11:22,014 and the surrounding beaches. 88 00:11:30,523 --> 00:11:33,609 In particular, a balcony where I lived for two years. 89 00:11:37,363 --> 00:11:40,866 I set up a blue screen, which can receive any image. 90 00:11:42,410 --> 00:11:45,329 As an echo... or a memory. 91 00:11:45,872 --> 00:11:49,416 My son Mathieu and Sabine in a film. 92 00:11:52,962 --> 00:11:56,715 I used the same technique on the big beach in Sète 93 00:11:56,841 --> 00:12:00,802 to create a complex image with mirrors and variations. 94 00:12:17,278 --> 00:12:19,363 From rowboat to plane, 95 00:12:19,489 --> 00:12:22,491 from sea foam to clouds, 96 00:12:22,659 --> 00:12:24,243 from sky to earth, 97 00:12:24,619 --> 00:12:28,413 and from train to car to go view some paintings. 98 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,167 We're heading to Frankfurt, Germany... 99 00:12:32,710 --> 00:12:36,255 to see an exposition of two 15th-century painters... 100 00:12:36,923 --> 00:12:40,217 Rogier de la Pasture, known as Van der Weyden, 101 00:12:40,385 --> 00:12:44,763 and the Master of Flemalle, also known as Robert Campin, 102 00:12:44,973 --> 00:12:47,599 though experts still argue 103 00:12:47,725 --> 00:12:50,435 over who painted what. 104 00:12:57,110 --> 00:13:00,320 Van der Weyden's work touches me most deeply. 105 00:13:01,406 --> 00:13:05,534 First, the Annunciations. This one is at the Louvre. 106 00:13:06,786 --> 00:13:08,537 The Annunciation... 107 00:13:08,746 --> 00:13:11,915 a major theme in sacred history and painting... 108 00:13:12,500 --> 00:13:16,878 and a subtle and discreet look at male-female relationships. 109 00:13:17,463 --> 00:13:20,007 The usual details are all here. 110 00:13:20,383 --> 00:13:22,509 A bouquet of lilies on the floor. 111 00:13:23,052 --> 00:13:26,305 The Angel's robe, his wings, his gestures. 112 00:13:28,308 --> 00:13:30,434 The book the Virgin holds... 113 00:13:32,103 --> 00:13:35,480 and her expression, sometimes serene, sometimes astonished. 114 00:13:37,317 --> 00:13:39,484 Each painter invented variations 115 00:13:39,652 --> 00:13:41,987 and degrees of distance or complicity 116 00:13:42,322 --> 00:13:44,531 between the Angel and the Virgin. 117 00:13:47,327 --> 00:13:49,995 From my mother I inherited a great curiosity 118 00:13:50,121 --> 00:13:53,040 about this encounter between the Angel and Mary 119 00:13:53,166 --> 00:13:55,375 as told by the painters. 120 00:14:00,631 --> 00:14:04,509 She collected postcards, and I continued the tradition. 121 00:14:08,681 --> 00:14:11,600 The Angel almost always enters from the left... 122 00:14:11,726 --> 00:14:15,604 smiling, discreet, shy, respectful. 123 00:14:19,025 --> 00:14:22,819 Or he arrives in mystical fashion from above. 124 00:14:25,156 --> 00:14:29,409 Or he bursts in, surprising the Virgin. 125 00:14:32,872 --> 00:14:37,209 The rare entrances from the right inspired master painters. 126 00:14:37,752 --> 00:14:40,962 Philippe de Champaigne, Rubens... 127 00:14:42,298 --> 00:14:43,840 Nicolas Poussin... 128 00:14:44,926 --> 00:14:46,343 and Lorenzo Lotto... 129 00:14:47,053 --> 00:14:49,513 with this unique Annunciation. 130 00:14:51,057 --> 00:14:54,017 Unique because the Angel frightens the cat, 131 00:14:54,227 --> 00:14:56,561 but nothing scares this Virgin. 132 00:14:58,189 --> 00:15:01,942 Jan de Beer also placed a cat in this mystical scene. 133 00:15:02,276 --> 00:15:04,027 But his cat is calm. 134 00:15:06,489 --> 00:15:08,782 Back to Rogier Van der Weyden. 135 00:15:08,950 --> 00:15:11,701 An annunciation on the Beaune Altarpiece... 136 00:15:12,078 --> 00:15:14,413 The Last Judgment. 137 00:15:14,914 --> 00:15:18,083 The Archangel Michael weighs the souls of the dead. 138 00:15:19,836 --> 00:15:23,755 For some it's a heavy trial. They will suffer in hell. 139 00:15:33,683 --> 00:15:36,435 The saved are resurrected... 140 00:15:36,644 --> 00:15:38,937 and praise the Lord. 141 00:15:41,107 --> 00:15:43,191 This same gesture expresses pain 142 00:15:43,317 --> 00:15:45,360 for this Mary shedding tears for Christ. 143 00:15:51,784 --> 00:15:54,453 From crucifixion to deposition, 144 00:15:54,745 --> 00:15:57,622 Van der Weyden conveys sorrow. 145 00:15:57,915 --> 00:16:00,959 Sorrow that goes beyond sacred history. 146 00:16:01,377 --> 00:16:03,545 Human sorrow. 147 00:17:13,824 --> 00:17:17,869 In France, on a street in Provence, a pietà. 148 00:17:18,704 --> 00:17:23,250 Christ's body is arched, as in the famous Avignon Pietà, 149 00:17:23,709 --> 00:17:25,710 now in the Louvre. 150 00:17:49,902 --> 00:17:52,279 This painting by Enguerrand Quarton 151 00:17:53,072 --> 00:17:56,741 was originally at the charterhouse in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon... 152 00:17:57,201 --> 00:17:59,578 as was his Coronation of the Virgin. 153 00:18:03,666 --> 00:18:06,418 His representation of holy Jerusalem 154 00:18:06,544 --> 00:18:09,713 bears a strong resemblance to Avignon's ramparts. 155 00:18:11,882 --> 00:18:14,759 From the Rhône we see Villeneuve on one side... 156 00:18:14,969 --> 00:18:16,845 Avignon on the other. 157 00:18:17,430 --> 00:18:20,181 I'll never forget the first theater festivals here... 158 00:18:20,683 --> 00:18:23,768 dazzling evenings at the Palais des Papes, 159 00:18:23,894 --> 00:18:26,229 Jean Vilar's innovative work. 160 00:18:26,522 --> 00:18:28,940 I can't help but remember. 161 00:18:30,693 --> 00:18:34,195 On the famous Pont d'Avignon, people still dance in circles... 162 00:18:34,864 --> 00:18:37,782 as does the merry-go-round outside the Opera Theater... 163 00:18:37,950 --> 00:18:40,785 where Le Chanteur de Mexico is playing. 164 00:18:41,245 --> 00:18:43,496 My daughter Rosalie did the costumes 165 00:18:43,623 --> 00:18:46,082 and Christophe Vallaux designed the sets. 166 00:18:46,959 --> 00:18:50,462 Mathieu Abelli sings the title role. 167 00:19:20,910 --> 00:19:23,828 Jump cut: I'm in Mexico City, 168 00:19:24,038 --> 00:19:26,623 a complex megalopolis. 169 00:19:27,208 --> 00:19:30,502 Altitude and pollution. But I feel only curiosity. 170 00:19:32,171 --> 00:19:34,005 I head first to a market... 171 00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:36,925 the best spot to see people, life, 172 00:19:37,134 --> 00:19:39,177 browsers, buyers. 173 00:19:39,637 --> 00:19:41,513 I like this crowd. 174 00:19:46,477 --> 00:19:48,520 There's movement and color... 175 00:19:49,355 --> 00:19:51,856 and suddenly a face. 176 00:20:01,659 --> 00:20:05,161 Some of my films are being presented. That's why I'm here. 177 00:20:11,627 --> 00:20:16,339 I tell them I feel loved and at home in all the world's cinematheques. 178 00:20:16,465 --> 00:20:19,134 I say it modestly, with pleasure. 179 00:20:19,552 --> 00:20:22,220 They spoil me. They've lent me a car... 180 00:20:22,596 --> 00:20:24,472 a driver, Tito... 181 00:20:24,724 --> 00:20:28,017 and an interpreter, Jorge. 182 00:20:28,561 --> 00:20:31,896 I'm in a beautiful hotel, decorated with antiques. 183 00:20:32,481 --> 00:20:34,899 Here are Jorge and my assistant Elodie. 184 00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:40,572 It's Saturday. There's a lovely wedding. 185 00:20:46,078 --> 00:20:47,996 They made a mistake. 186 00:20:49,915 --> 00:20:53,251 They gave Elodie a bridal bath suite. 187 00:20:55,087 --> 00:20:57,130 She shows it to me. 188 00:20:57,256 --> 00:20:59,841 I ask her to pose. She agrees. 189 00:21:05,598 --> 00:21:08,892 Meanwhile, Jorge tickles the keys of the bar piano. 190 00:21:11,771 --> 00:21:14,939 I film the breakfast buffet. 191 00:21:33,834 --> 00:21:36,628 This abundance is quite scandalous. 192 00:21:38,172 --> 00:21:41,633 There are thousands of unemployed and poor in Mexico. 193 00:21:43,803 --> 00:21:46,638 On the streets we see people scraping by... 194 00:21:46,889 --> 00:21:48,097 doing what they can. 195 00:22:37,439 --> 00:22:40,275 There's also the Guadalajara Film Festival. 196 00:22:41,944 --> 00:22:43,862 Now that I'm old... 197 00:22:44,238 --> 00:22:49,200 everyone tends to give me awards and trophies. 198 00:22:54,039 --> 00:22:57,709 I'm also invited to speak at universities. 199 00:22:58,502 --> 00:23:00,587 A discussion about documentaries 200 00:23:00,796 --> 00:23:03,548 led by filmmaker Juan Carlos Rulfo. 201 00:23:03,674 --> 00:23:05,383 In any case... 202 00:23:05,551 --> 00:23:09,220 you need film, you need video... 203 00:23:09,388 --> 00:23:11,222 you need equipment. 204 00:23:12,641 --> 00:23:16,144 Then we dine on the hill and continue talking cinema 205 00:23:16,270 --> 00:23:19,147 with the festival staff. 206 00:23:23,235 --> 00:23:28,031 Though some say it's better to die than miss the Morelia Film Festival. 207 00:23:29,283 --> 00:23:31,910 Like filmmaker Carlos Reygadas... 208 00:23:32,036 --> 00:23:35,330 who's been causing a sensation at Cannes since 2005. 209 00:23:36,248 --> 00:23:40,251 We're on our way to see him in his village of Ocotitlán. 210 00:23:40,669 --> 00:23:44,255 In the distance is Popocatepetl Volcano. 211 00:23:44,423 --> 00:23:47,008 They say flying saucers land there. 212 00:23:48,093 --> 00:23:50,178 I'm actually a lawyer. 213 00:23:50,304 --> 00:23:53,514 I studied military justice, the right to use force 214 00:23:53,807 --> 00:23:56,017 and engage in armed conflict. 215 00:23:56,143 --> 00:23:59,228 I worked for the European Commission in Belgium, 216 00:23:59,355 --> 00:24:02,148 then for the Mexican Foreign Service, 217 00:24:02,274 --> 00:24:05,777 doing preparatory work for the International Criminal Court. 218 00:24:07,112 --> 00:24:09,989 The Brussels film museum is a great place. 219 00:24:10,115 --> 00:24:12,408 I'd go see two films a day. 220 00:24:12,534 --> 00:24:17,080 I liked my work, but I didn't like the lifestyle it imposes. 221 00:24:17,206 --> 00:24:21,209 Cinema was kind of an excuse to change my life. 222 00:24:22,962 --> 00:24:27,674 At a certain point, especially when I wanted kids, 223 00:24:27,841 --> 00:24:30,343 I decided to come home to Mexico. 224 00:24:30,594 --> 00:24:35,515 Mexico is a wonderful place to raise children. 225 00:24:38,018 --> 00:24:42,605 Your film Japón really hit me hard. 226 00:24:42,982 --> 00:24:47,485 It's a film about despair and solitude. 227 00:24:47,903 --> 00:24:50,947 The man's solitude, and the old woman's. 228 00:24:53,409 --> 00:24:57,245 She tells us so much about being old. 229 00:24:57,538 --> 00:24:59,914 She really made an impression on me. 230 00:25:00,457 --> 00:25:04,836 What made you choose such a dark subject for your first film? 231 00:25:05,879 --> 00:25:09,340 There's a man who wants to die. 232 00:25:23,397 --> 00:25:28,860 He's in a situation where he wants to kill himself, 233 00:25:29,111 --> 00:25:30,903 commit suicide. 234 00:25:31,030 --> 00:25:35,366 For him it's a clear, active, considered, rational choice. 235 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:37,869 Why live? 236 00:25:38,037 --> 00:25:41,873 I think that question, which I've been asking myself -- 237 00:25:42,041 --> 00:25:44,667 or used to ask myself -- 238 00:25:44,835 --> 00:25:48,046 ever since I was very young, 239 00:25:48,172 --> 00:25:50,465 inspired the film. 240 00:25:51,425 --> 00:25:55,720 You dared to film one of the most extraordinary love scenes in film. 241 00:25:56,055 --> 00:25:59,557 How did it come about? Was it meant to happen? 242 00:25:59,850 --> 00:26:01,893 Was it written that way? 243 00:26:02,186 --> 00:26:05,813 What I'd like is to have intercourse with you. 244 00:26:05,981 --> 00:26:09,400 It's more complicated than that, but that's basically it. 245 00:26:09,735 --> 00:26:11,819 I'd like to if you'd like to. 246 00:26:12,029 --> 00:26:14,572 - You mean casual sex? - Excuse me? 247 00:26:15,407 --> 00:26:17,283 You tell me. 248 00:26:17,534 --> 00:26:20,036 I mean... sexual relations. 249 00:26:20,204 --> 00:26:22,705 It's important for me right now. 250 00:26:22,873 --> 00:26:25,917 But don't you see I'm very old? 251 00:26:26,376 --> 00:26:28,252 It doesn't matter. 252 00:26:32,216 --> 00:26:36,594 We needed a woman for the role. We found her in the village. 253 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,264 We were lucky to find Magdalena. She's amazing. 254 00:26:40,933 --> 00:26:44,602 Of course I explained it all to her before filming. 255 00:26:44,937 --> 00:26:49,315 I knew she was modest and that it would be hard for her, 256 00:26:49,525 --> 00:26:54,612 but she'd also promised me she'd do it. 257 00:26:57,116 --> 00:26:58,950 I told the man... 258 00:26:59,076 --> 00:27:03,287 "You just tell her to do like this, 259 00:27:03,455 --> 00:27:05,331 to assume the position, 260 00:27:05,457 --> 00:27:07,625 and you take it from there." 261 00:27:16,552 --> 00:27:20,763 And I told the woman, "Do what he asks you to." 262 00:27:35,779 --> 00:27:38,823 Here is Reygadas with his wife Natalia 263 00:27:38,991 --> 00:27:41,784 and their children, Elazar and Ruth. 264 00:27:44,496 --> 00:27:46,956 Tell Agnes your name. 265 00:27:48,208 --> 00:27:50,126 I'm a father. 266 00:27:50,961 --> 00:27:53,838 Mainly. Though I do love to make films. 267 00:27:54,006 --> 00:27:56,048 But I do other things too. 268 00:27:56,175 --> 00:27:57,550 Such as? 269 00:27:57,676 --> 00:28:00,303 I'm building a house at the moment. 270 00:28:00,429 --> 00:28:02,471 And I play soccer. 271 00:28:02,764 --> 00:28:05,349 With a team? We saw a field. 272 00:28:05,475 --> 00:28:07,685 Yes, here in the village. 273 00:28:07,811 --> 00:28:09,937 What's the team called? 274 00:28:10,063 --> 00:28:13,858 Ocotitlán, the name of this place. 275 00:28:14,026 --> 00:28:16,068 Do you play other villages? 276 00:28:16,195 --> 00:28:19,197 Sure, the whole region. 277 00:28:19,364 --> 00:28:21,991 What position do you play? 278 00:28:22,159 --> 00:28:26,078 I'm the center midfielder. 279 00:28:26,455 --> 00:28:28,164 That's great. 280 00:28:32,002 --> 00:28:34,879 On the way back to Mexico City, 281 00:28:35,088 --> 00:28:37,465 I'm still thinking about Reygadas. 282 00:28:38,050 --> 00:28:40,301 Traffic is always heavy. 283 00:28:48,310 --> 00:28:51,062 We're going to Frida Kahlo's house. 284 00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:54,732 I always enjoy coming here. 285 00:28:54,858 --> 00:28:56,984 It's a festival of color. 286 00:29:03,617 --> 00:29:07,411 Frida lived here with the famous painter Diego Rivera. 287 00:29:09,081 --> 00:29:11,999 She herself was a great and remarkable artist too. 288 00:29:21,260 --> 00:29:24,387 In this museum we see Frida's personal things, 289 00:29:24,513 --> 00:29:26,931 her collections, her bedspread, her pillows. 290 00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:29,642 There are several paintings too, 291 00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:33,437 but you can't film or take pictures of them. 292 00:29:35,023 --> 00:29:36,941 Far from the museum, 293 00:29:37,109 --> 00:29:40,069 the world of Frida's paintings is a violent one. 294 00:29:41,655 --> 00:29:46,200 It reflects her tormented health and her wounds of every kind. 295 00:29:51,039 --> 00:29:54,041 It's both realistic and imaginary. 296 00:30:00,257 --> 00:30:03,467 Frida is loved for her paintings and through her paintings. 297 00:30:04,136 --> 00:30:06,304 She's wholly present there. 298 00:30:08,265 --> 00:30:10,641 The blue in her courtyard 299 00:30:10,892 --> 00:30:13,811 came long after the indigo blue of the Tuareg... 300 00:30:14,521 --> 00:30:17,148 and before Yves Klein's copyrighted blue. 301 00:30:17,899 --> 00:30:21,485 Here it illuminates the portrait I took of Alfredo. 302 00:30:30,954 --> 00:30:33,497 Off we go, Alfredo at the wheel. 303 00:30:38,545 --> 00:30:40,838 "God's love is wonderful," they sing. 304 00:30:44,676 --> 00:30:47,345 The flea market has everything -- like everywhere. 305 00:30:48,388 --> 00:30:50,097 Local things too. 306 00:30:52,851 --> 00:30:56,687 I find a bird and a cat in a style I like. 307 00:30:57,230 --> 00:31:00,691 Shall I wrap them up? 308 00:31:03,653 --> 00:31:05,696 Twenty years earlier... 309 00:31:06,239 --> 00:31:08,574 I'd brought home these animals, 310 00:31:08,700 --> 00:31:11,327 a specialty of the village of Tonalá. 311 00:31:26,009 --> 00:31:28,803 I'd like to see the craftsmen again. 312 00:31:29,888 --> 00:31:32,223 Off we go, Alfredo at the wheel. 313 00:31:32,557 --> 00:31:34,683 There are shops and workshops, 314 00:31:34,810 --> 00:31:37,895 but nothing resembles what I'm looking for. 315 00:31:38,188 --> 00:31:40,981 In the only place with animals, I inquire. 316 00:31:41,733 --> 00:31:43,984 "Now it's shiny enamel. 317 00:31:44,111 --> 00:31:46,904 Quicker to make," says the saleswoman. 318 00:31:47,072 --> 00:31:49,073 She proudly sells plates 319 00:31:49,449 --> 00:31:53,160 with traditional bird motifs. 320 00:31:54,246 --> 00:31:57,164 Tonalá thanks us for visiting. 321 00:31:57,290 --> 00:31:59,834 TONALÁ THANKS YOU FOR VISITING 322 00:32:13,390 --> 00:32:16,934 We're off to see an unusual factory: 323 00:32:17,227 --> 00:32:19,728 Jumex. Mexican juices. 324 00:32:20,772 --> 00:32:23,858 It's known for its collection of contemporary art. 325 00:32:24,943 --> 00:32:27,736 Michel Blancsube welcomes us. 326 00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:32,616 A fruit juice company. Quite well-known. 327 00:32:35,454 --> 00:32:39,665 Eugenio López Alonso collects contemporary art. 328 00:32:39,875 --> 00:32:44,420 He's the only son of Jumex's owner and founder. 329 00:32:49,092 --> 00:32:52,595 I came here in February 2001 to install a work 330 00:32:52,721 --> 00:32:54,972 that Eugenio López Alonso had bought: 331 00:32:55,140 --> 00:32:59,101 the oval billiard table by Gabriel Orozco. 332 00:33:02,272 --> 00:33:05,483 Gabriel Orozco recently had an exposition at the Pompidou. 333 00:33:06,067 --> 00:33:08,652 His skinny car was there -- 334 00:33:09,029 --> 00:33:11,155 the one that made him famous -- 335 00:33:11,615 --> 00:33:13,491 and many other pieces. 336 00:33:15,494 --> 00:33:17,328 Feels like Mexico. 337 00:33:18,038 --> 00:33:20,289 To install the billiard table, 338 00:33:20,415 --> 00:33:23,959 bringing over a French guy from the Marseille museum was cheaper 339 00:33:24,085 --> 00:33:27,588 than bringing over the two English guys who built it. 340 00:33:27,839 --> 00:33:30,841 So the Mexican collector... 341 00:33:31,551 --> 00:33:34,345 opted for the French guy. 342 00:33:35,722 --> 00:33:38,182 I came here for a six-month trial. 343 00:33:38,350 --> 00:33:40,684 I've been here almost nine years. 344 00:33:41,853 --> 00:33:45,856 The gallery entrance is down this old factory alley. 345 00:33:46,191 --> 00:33:49,193 In 2006, he had the good idea 346 00:33:49,319 --> 00:33:53,447 of letting me curate exhibitions culled from his collection. 347 00:33:54,366 --> 00:33:58,035 I'm eager to see the collection, but the timing's bad. 348 00:33:58,203 --> 00:34:00,454 They're in between exhibitions. 349 00:34:05,752 --> 00:34:09,255 I'm disappointed at spending 90 minutes in heavy traffic 350 00:34:09,381 --> 00:34:11,382 just to see crates! 351 00:34:11,508 --> 00:34:14,051 I can show you some two-dimensional works. 352 00:34:23,645 --> 00:34:26,188 A photo by Santiago Sierra. 353 00:34:26,314 --> 00:34:31,277 He paid a guy to spend 360 hours squeezed in there. 354 00:34:31,528 --> 00:34:35,906 He says that with money you can get anyone to do anything. 355 00:34:36,157 --> 00:34:39,952 I think that kind of provocation has its limits. 356 00:34:44,791 --> 00:34:46,750 Ah, a Boltanski! 357 00:34:47,419 --> 00:34:50,129 From the 1980s, one of his famous Monuments. 358 00:34:50,255 --> 00:34:51,630 Beautiful! 359 00:34:52,674 --> 00:34:57,177 We just filmed him at length at his expo at the Grand Palais. 360 00:34:57,304 --> 00:35:01,390 I think I read these were photos he hadn't used, 361 00:35:01,558 --> 00:35:04,685 so he cut them up and recycled them 362 00:35:04,811 --> 00:35:06,437 in his Monuments. 363 00:35:09,608 --> 00:35:13,777 Here are two elements from a Matthew Barney triptych 364 00:35:14,154 --> 00:35:19,033 to be shown in a museum you may know of: Schaulager. 365 00:35:19,159 --> 00:35:21,201 Yes, in fact at the Schaulager, 366 00:35:21,328 --> 00:35:25,039 I saw a Matthew Barney exposition. I didn't film anything... 367 00:35:25,206 --> 00:35:28,626 but I photographed a large piece by Barney... 368 00:35:29,252 --> 00:35:31,754 a small Cranach near a dirt pile... 369 00:35:32,213 --> 00:35:34,214 and Matthew himself. 370 00:35:36,593 --> 00:35:38,552 Back to Mexico City. 371 00:35:41,181 --> 00:35:43,807 Murals. Graffiti artists. 372 00:36:06,081 --> 00:36:08,040 From reflections in the street... 373 00:36:08,917 --> 00:36:12,002 to the optical effects of Olafur Eliasson. 374 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,313 We're in the new university museum... 375 00:36:31,606 --> 00:36:33,607 the MUAC. 376 00:36:33,858 --> 00:36:35,859 There's a lot to see, 377 00:36:35,985 --> 00:36:39,446 because Mexican collectors show their acquisitions here. 378 00:36:39,614 --> 00:36:42,825 Rafael Sámano, museum coordinator, explains. 379 00:36:42,951 --> 00:36:47,329 I recognize him from the front row of the cinematheque every night. 380 00:36:47,455 --> 00:36:50,541 Here he is with Dan Graham's one-way mirrors. 381 00:36:50,834 --> 00:36:54,712 How does it work? Can we see you from the other side? 382 00:36:54,879 --> 00:36:56,964 No, it's a mirror. 383 00:36:57,257 --> 00:37:01,468 But how does it reflect on the other side? 384 00:37:01,636 --> 00:37:05,597 - There's a birefractive film. - Exactly. 385 00:37:06,224 --> 00:37:10,102 There's a mirror that's like a Gesell dome 386 00:37:10,228 --> 00:37:13,147 used in police interrogations. 387 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,402 From police to army is just a few steps. 388 00:37:18,695 --> 00:37:21,739 A large piece by Thomas Hirschhorn. 389 00:37:23,241 --> 00:37:27,578 He took globes and daubed on military camouflage. 390 00:37:28,955 --> 00:37:32,416 Above them, he placed photos of soldiers wounded in Iraq. 391 00:37:32,542 --> 00:37:35,586 A form invented for this terrible reality. 392 00:37:42,177 --> 00:37:45,596 Nearby, a wall of greenery and fluorescent lights 393 00:37:45,722 --> 00:37:49,349 by Anglo-Mexican artist Melanie Smith. 394 00:37:52,103 --> 00:37:54,521 Her children are here. 395 00:37:55,023 --> 00:37:57,107 She posed for me too. 396 00:37:59,110 --> 00:38:02,112 This woman too is an artist in her own way: 397 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,615 Rosario, the woman in pink. 398 00:38:04,949 --> 00:38:07,284 She looks like she's dressed for the stage. 399 00:38:08,203 --> 00:38:10,120 Actually, starting at dawn, 400 00:38:10,288 --> 00:38:13,457 she cleans the entrance to the Tlalpan market. 401 00:38:15,668 --> 00:38:19,296 I admire her striving for elegance and her courtesy to passersby 402 00:38:19,506 --> 00:38:23,217 and to those who buy her homemade flans 403 00:38:23,426 --> 00:38:25,761 and her knitted booties. 404 00:38:27,138 --> 00:38:29,932 I knit booties. 405 00:38:30,934 --> 00:38:32,726 How much are they? 406 00:38:32,852 --> 00:38:35,813 85 and 120. 407 00:38:38,191 --> 00:38:40,984 It's a local market. Everyone knows everyone. 408 00:38:51,204 --> 00:38:53,330 They're playing Brisca. 409 00:38:53,456 --> 00:38:56,083 The club cards look like chilies. 410 00:38:57,168 --> 00:38:59,670 I follow the chilies till I reach a woman 411 00:38:59,838 --> 00:39:04,091 who makes the best mole in Mexico, according to Paula Verde. 412 00:39:05,176 --> 00:39:09,513 They say this is the best mole in town. 413 00:39:09,848 --> 00:39:12,015 Of course it's the best. 414 00:39:12,183 --> 00:39:13,517 You believe it? 415 00:39:13,685 --> 00:39:15,602 Of course I believe it. 416 00:39:15,895 --> 00:39:21,316 People come from all over to buy it at your store. 417 00:39:21,442 --> 00:39:24,194 You know that? - Yes. 418 00:39:25,363 --> 00:39:27,197 Mole powder... 419 00:39:27,574 --> 00:39:29,908 to be added to chicken broth, 420 00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:32,536 is made with 15 ingredients, 421 00:39:32,662 --> 00:39:35,539 including a small chili pepper called piquín. 422 00:39:36,332 --> 00:39:38,000 What's that? 423 00:39:39,085 --> 00:39:40,711 Piquín chili. 424 00:39:41,045 --> 00:39:44,631 It has mulato, ancho, and pasilla chilies... 425 00:39:45,383 --> 00:39:49,469 almonds, raisins, peanuts, sesame seeds... 426 00:39:49,804 --> 00:39:52,264 plantains... 427 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,392 onions... 428 00:39:56,561 --> 00:39:58,729 pumpkin seeds... 429 00:40:01,816 --> 00:40:03,442 bread crumbs... 430 00:40:03,735 --> 00:40:06,820 pepper, cumin, cinnamon... 431 00:40:06,946 --> 00:40:08,614 and chocolate. 432 00:40:08,740 --> 00:40:10,824 - You make it yourself? - Yes, at home. 433 00:40:10,950 --> 00:40:13,785 How do you say "recipe"? Is it your recipe? 434 00:40:13,912 --> 00:40:18,540 Yes. My grandmother's recipe, my mother's, the whole family's. 435 00:40:18,708 --> 00:40:20,375 It's a tradition. 436 00:40:23,171 --> 00:40:25,422 The Popular Art Museum is a delight. 437 00:40:26,466 --> 00:40:29,259 A tree of life. Naive art. 438 00:40:42,774 --> 00:40:44,608 Not everything is bucolic. 439 00:40:44,734 --> 00:40:47,027 Here's a demon rapist 440 00:40:47,153 --> 00:40:49,446 with an avenging Virtue. 441 00:40:55,787 --> 00:40:59,414 The theme of death inspires everyone's imagination. 442 00:41:00,124 --> 00:41:02,292 Little skeletons are everywhere: 443 00:41:02,627 --> 00:41:05,879 as railway workers, road workers, and cangaceiros. 444 00:41:22,730 --> 00:41:25,899 In the shop, you can buy skulls. 445 00:41:28,653 --> 00:41:30,404 There's a wide selection. 446 00:41:32,156 --> 00:41:34,825 And skeleton dolls in local dress. 447 00:41:39,330 --> 00:41:41,790 I brought back some dry skeletons 448 00:41:41,916 --> 00:41:44,251 for my courtyard in winter. 449 00:41:46,170 --> 00:41:48,922 And a little traveling fold-up bar. 450 00:42:08,484 --> 00:42:12,696 Mexicans create objects and make jokes to tame death. 451 00:42:15,199 --> 00:42:17,367 Back home the approach is different... 452 00:42:17,702 --> 00:42:19,369 less playful. 453 00:42:30,882 --> 00:42:32,716 Woman and death... 454 00:42:32,884 --> 00:42:34,760 flesh and bone. 455 00:42:34,886 --> 00:42:36,762 Recurring themes... 456 00:42:36,971 --> 00:42:38,930 as seen by the old school... 457 00:42:40,224 --> 00:42:42,225 or by Marina Abramović. 458 00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:58,075 These works were at the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent. 459 00:42:59,494 --> 00:43:02,329 At the Maillol Museum, the same subject, 460 00:43:02,455 --> 00:43:05,248 as depicted from first-century Pompeii onward. 461 00:43:07,919 --> 00:43:11,463 Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas... 462 00:43:11,923 --> 00:43:13,840 All is vanity. 463 00:43:17,095 --> 00:43:19,387 The Latin inscription is clear: 464 00:43:19,555 --> 00:43:21,681 "After man come the worms, 465 00:43:21,808 --> 00:43:24,893 after the worms comes the stench." 466 00:43:31,192 --> 00:43:33,276 Cezanne took a classic approach. 467 00:43:36,531 --> 00:43:38,865 Daniel Spoerri chose distance and humor 468 00:43:38,991 --> 00:43:43,537 by combining a kitschy lion tapestry and a real skeleton. 469 00:43:45,748 --> 00:43:48,291 The hunter, no doubt. 470 00:43:49,627 --> 00:43:53,630 A little lounge coffin with feet made of skulls. 471 00:43:58,761 --> 00:44:01,304 The moon we're walking on here... 472 00:44:01,681 --> 00:44:04,307 is Miquel Barceló's skull. 473 00:44:06,644 --> 00:44:10,480 Annette Messager provided commentary on her own skull. 474 00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:16,069 They're black or dark-brown gloves. 475 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,990 In the gloves I've inserted 476 00:44:20,158 --> 00:44:23,201 colored pencils like fingernails. 477 00:44:23,327 --> 00:44:25,787 They're sharp and pointed, 478 00:44:25,913 --> 00:44:28,498 like long fingernails sticking out. 479 00:44:29,625 --> 00:44:32,711 I assembled them to form a large head. 480 00:44:33,004 --> 00:44:35,338 A skull. 481 00:44:36,757 --> 00:44:40,343 Niki de Saint Phalle's skull doesn't seem deadly to me. 482 00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:44,097 She brings in lace and a heart. 483 00:44:44,223 --> 00:44:46,349 I immediately associate her skull 484 00:44:46,517 --> 00:44:50,520 with her Nanas, so full of heart and curves. 485 00:44:58,529 --> 00:45:01,615 This beautiful sprawling "nana" by Aristide Maillol 486 00:45:01,741 --> 00:45:03,742 takes on its full meaning here. 487 00:45:03,868 --> 00:45:07,704 Chance brought these skulls -- including this one by Yan Pei-Ming -- 488 00:45:07,872 --> 00:45:12,042 and disincarnate visions of humanity to the Maillol Museum. 489 00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:16,713 Maillol himself celebrated life by sculpting in stone 490 00:45:16,839 --> 00:45:19,341 the flesh of women's bodies.