Tag Archives: Varda par Agnès (Varda)

THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA

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A founder of the French New Wave who became an international art-house icon, Agnès Varda was a fiercely independent, restlessly curious visionary whose work was at once personal and passionately committed to the world around her. In an abundant career in which she never stopped expanding the notion of what a movie can be, Varda forged a unique cinematic vocabulary that frequently blurs the boundaries between narrative and documentary, and entwines loving portraits of her friends, her family, and her own inner world with a social consciousness that was closely attuned to the 1960s counterculture, the women’s liberation movement, the plight of the poor and socially marginalized, and the ecology of our planet. This comprehensive collection places Varda’s filmography in the context of her parallel work as a photographer and multimedia artist—all of it a testament to the radical vision, boundless imagination, and radiant spirit of a true original for whom every act of creation was a vital expression of her very being. — The Criterion Collection

The new box set THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA features digital restorations of thirty-nine films as well as the television productions Agnès de ci de là Varda, Nausicaa (1970), Quelques veuves de Noirmoutier, and Varda’s segments from Une minute pour une image.

Also included: rare archival footage, tributes and interviews, segments from unfinished works, and a 200-page book with contributions by Amy Taubin, Michael Koresky, Ginette Vincendeau, So Mayer, Alexandra Hidalgo, and Rebecca Bengal, as well as a selection of Varda’s photography and images of her installation art.

The feature films are divided into fifteen programs:

Agnès Forever — Varda by Agnès (2019), Les 3 boutons (2015).

Early Varda — La Pointe Courte (1955), Ô saisons, ô châteaux (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958).

Around Paris — Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962), Les fiancés du pont Macdonald (1962), L’opéra-mouffe (1958), Les dites cariatides (1984), T’as de beaux escaliers, tu sais (1986).

Rue Daguerre — Daguerréotypes (1975), Le lion volatil (2003).

Married Life — Le bonheur (1965), Les créatures (1966), Elsa la Rose (1966).

In California — Uncle Yanco (1968), Black Panthers (1970), Lions Love (. . . and Lies) (1969), Mur Murs (1981), Documenteur (1981).

Her Body, Herself — One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977), Réponse de femmes (1975), Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1977).

No Shelter — Vagabond (1985), 7 p., cuis., s. de b. . . . (à saisir) (1985).

Jane B. — Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988), Kung-Fu Master! (1988).

Jacques Demy — Jacquot de Nantes (1991), The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993), The World of Jacques Demy (1995).

Simon Cinéma — One Hundred and One Nights (1995).

La glaneuse — The Gleaners and I (2000), The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002).

Visual Artist — Visages Villages, codirected with JR (2017), Salut les cubains (1964), Ulysse (1982), Ydessa, les ours et etc. . . . (2004).

Here and There — Agnès de ci de là Varda (2011).

Beaches — The Beaches of Agnès (2008).

See link below for details.

THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNÈS VARDA

The Criterion Collection

Agnès Varda, from top: Varda in Visages, Villages; Du côté de la côte; Black Panthers; Nausicaa; Réponse de femmes poster; Salut les Cubains (2); Shirley Clarke, Gerome Ragni, and Viva in Lions Love (. . . and Lies); One Sings, the Other Doesn’t; The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, courtesy and © Criterion; Jane Birkin in Jane B. par Agnès V.; Daguerréotypes; Agnès de ci de là Varda. Images courtesy and © the estate of Agnès Varda and Ciné-Tamaris.

AGNÈS

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“Each film has its history, its beauty or not beauty, and its meaning.  The meaning can change over the years for people who watch the film, because there is a lot of evolution in the sense of history, the sense of understanding.  But when you speak about 35 millimeter or DCP or video, it’s unimportant. The film is what it is, but what is different are the people who made the film…

“I change.  I wouldn’t do the same film today about Cuba or about the Panthers or about women.  Each film has a date glued to it.  And what we try is to overcome the date and make a meaning that can be more than 1962 or 1961 or whatever.” — Agnès Varda

Varda—mother of the nouvelle vague—was born outside Brussels, made some of her most important films in California, and died this morning at her home in Paris.

Active into her late eighties, local audiences remember many of her recent trips to Los Angeles, presenting retrospectives at the American Cinematheque and LACMA, giving talks at the AFI festival, and receiving a Governor’s Award from the Academy in 2017.

Varda—who directed Cléo de 5 à 7 in Paris in 1961—and her husband Jacques Demy (1931–1990) first came to Los Angeles in 1966, Demy eventually directing Model Shop (1969) and Varda making shorts—Uncle Yanco, Black Panthers—in preparation for her first California feature, the remarkable Lions Love (… and Lies) (also 1969). Varda’s final completed work is the soon-to-be-released documentary Varda par Agnès.

From top: Agnès Varda on the set of Lions Love (… and Lies); Varda shooting her second feature Cléo de 5 à 7 in Paris in the early 1960s, photograph by Roger Viollet; Anouk Aimée (left), Jacques Demy, and Varda in Los Angeles during the shoot of Demy’s Model Shop; scene from Varda’s Black Panthers (1968), shot in Oakland; Sabine Mamou (right) and Mathieu Demy—Varda and Demy’s son—in Varda’s feature Documenteur (1981), shot in Los Angeles; Venice Beach scene from the documentary Mur Murs (1981); Varda and Jane Birkin on set, Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988), photograph by Jean Ber; Varda in Varda par Agnès (2019). Images courtesy Ciné-Tamaris.