Shot in California in 1969, Lions Love (...and Lies) is undoubtedly one of Varda’s least discussed films, yet one that changed the filmmaker’s trajectory. In a rented house in the Hollywood Hills, a love triangle — made up of Viva (one of Andy Warhol’s muses at the time), Gerome Ragni and James Rado (the creators of Hair) — wakes up in their king-size bed set against a windowed wall overlooking palm trees and birds of paradise. The date is June 4, 1968, the day after Valerie Solanas tried to kill Warhol, and two days before Kennedy’s assassination. Feet, arms and legs are busy under the sheets, bodies contorting like an enormous octopus. It’s time for the morning coffee, but no one wants want to get up to make it. “The woman’s always supposed to get coffee’’, suggests Gerome. Those days are over: “Call room service’’, they say. Viva picks up the phone, pretending to call an imaginary reception, and orders everything they need in French: “trois cafés au lait, trois pains ordinaires français naturels, pain de raisin toasté, confiture’’.