Susan Sontag and Agnès Varda

Modern Cinema and the Authenticity of the Image. As part of the Seventh New York Film Festival, Agnes Varda and Susan Sontag discuss the nature of contemporary cinema, its political implications, and its ability to represent reality. In their films, Lions Love and Duet for Cannibals, respectively, both directors explore characters that blur the line between the public and the private, the authentic and the performative. Varda, by focusing on figures like Viva and the creators of Hair, portrays individuals whose lives themselves become a form of resistance, rejecting the notion of the grotesque. Meanwhile, Sontag, through her depiction of an exiled philosopher and his surroundings, reveals how social roles can conceal deeper, more unsettling truths. Both films, though distinct in style and narrative, address a key phenomenon: the intersection of the political and the intimate. While Lions Love frames its characters’ reactions to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, Duet for Cannibalsconstructs a story where power and identity intertwine in disturbing ways. Throughout the discussion, the evolution of cinematic perception toward greater authenticity emerges as a central theme, challenging previous conventions regarding language, staging, and narrative structure. Television and mass media play a fundamental role, imposing an inescapable global awareness that redefines the relationship between audiences and historical events The debate concludes with a reflection on the sense of impending collapse that permeates the cinema of the time, an anxiety reflected in the representation of individuals in an increasingly fragmented world. The struggle for authenticity—whether through acting or simply through living—appears as a form of resistance against a reality that is increasingly mediated and artificial.