Agnès Varda
A 16 mm film recovered from the French director's boxes, with images of Varda, Pasolini and New York. Pasolini is shown walking in the Big Apple (where he went to present 'Hawks and Sparrows').
As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic revisionist history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.
An unpredictable documentary from a fascinating storyteller, Agnès Varda’s last film sheds light on her experience as a director, bringing a personal insight to what she calls “cine-writing,” traveling from Rue Daguerre in Paris to Los Angeles and Beijing.
The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.
This documentary recounts the life of the late composer Michel Legrand, known for his works on Les Parapluies de Cherbourg or Les Demoiselles De Rochefort with the famous director Jacques Demy.
An artistic pioneer, Agnès Varda has never stopped looking for the next way to tell a story. Here the 90-year-old explains how Instagram, with a majority of users in the 18-24 age range, followed photography and film as her medium of choice.
Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
“Miss Jasmine! I have a package for you!” The 14-year-old girl with braces takes a break from milking the goat. Her local postman has delivered a surprise. She opens it up. Out floats a magical magenta ball dress ten times her teenage size. “I am curious,” she says, and enters the folds of the dress. From here, Jasmine⎯headstrong, a dreamer, a realist⎯takes us on a modern anti-fairy tale through caves and stalagmites, streets and shop windows, obsessions and everyday empowerment.
Isabell Suba, ambitious up-and-coming director, has made it – one of her short films is in the line-up of the most important film festival of the world! When she arrives at the 65. Cannes film festival, she has face the accomplished facts: David, her incompetent producer, has kindly sublet their cosy joint apartment to other festival guests. The other bad news: There is not a single movie in the competition directed by a woman! This affirms Isabell’s qualms: The film business demands women to gear up instead of dressing up low cut! Moreover, the chauvinistic remarks of her comrade-in-arms David who feels comfortable around the clichéd gender stereotypes from the Stone Age seemingly prevalent in Cannes infuriate Isabell. As if this wasn’t enough already, a shattering feedback on her new film project by a potential investor finally causes her to doubt herself. Before she can live her dream up at the Olympus of film business, she must first find out who really believes in her.
On the 8th floor of the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Raymond Depardon's film features a minute of silence with eight artists and scientists: David Lynch, Patti Smith, William Eggleston, Takeshi Kitano, Ron Mueck, Jean Michel Alberola, Agnès Varda and Misha Gromov.
On the occasion of the Henri Langlois Centenary (2014), Agnès Varda recounts a memory.
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
Is there such a thing as strictly feminine cinema? Is it more difficult for a woman than for a man to direct a film? Is gender parity necessary in the industry? Actress and producer Julie GAYET and actor and director Mathieu BUSSON ask these questions to twenty French woman filmmakers, who face a camera together for the first time. After over an hour of lively, informal, spontaneous and funny interviews, it becomes obvious that these issues are still problematic and definitely worthy of a documentary. As Mia HANSEN-LØVE remarks, “In the eyes of the people, a woman’s film is always a woman’s film, while a man’s movie is simply… a movie”.
In the world's first media interview, shot in Paris in August 1886, the great photographer Nadar interviews the famous scientist and sceptic Chevreul on his 100th birthday. In their own words - originally recorded in shorthand - they discuss photography, colour theory, Moliere, the scientific method, the crazy ideas of balloonists, and - of course - how to live for 100 years. These two legends of the 19th century have a lively and interesting conversation. One was born before the French revolution; the other was destined to see the marvels of the aeroplane and the movies.
A rare and beautiful moment in cinema where two friends — who happen to be pioneering, legendary filmmakers from the French New Wave — meet in real life and in a virtual world. In the film, which was shot at two points between 2009-2011, Agnès Varda visits Chris Marker in his studio, a few years before his passing. She admires his magnificent mess, snooping around for details that reveal “the hidden side of Marker’s work”: a labyrinth of wires and computer equipment, a collection of images, magazines, and books, and — of course — cats. The film takes on a wonderful surrealist turn when Varda creates an avatar to meet Marker’s avatar in the online virtual world of Second Life.
Features conversations with ten of the world's greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. The film documents Ismailos' voyage of discovering the creative personalities behind the camera.
In 2007, the French filmmaker and my dear friend Agnès Varda called me before coming to L.A. with a question: would I agree to let her film my L.A. story? The video you are about to watch is the story of our first encounter in Paris in 1996 and in the years since, how our shared reverence for cinema formed the bonds of an everlasting friendship, and how the Cinematheque became like home.
A short program in which the participants describe how they fell in love with cinema.
Reveals the history of camerawomen around the world, celebrating not only the survival of pioneer women in a male-dominated field, but a new generation of camerawomen's visions.
Filmmaking icon Agnès Varda, the award-winning director regarded by many as the grandmother of the French new wave, turns the camera on herself with this unique autobiographical documentary. Composed of film excerpts and elaborate dramatic re-creations, Varda's self-portrait recounts the highs and lows of her professional career, the many friendships that affected her life and her longtime marriage to cinematic giant Jacques Demy.
Director Agnès Varda gathers some of her collaborators from JACQUOT DE NANTES to discuss their experiences making the film, as well as show Varda wove her grief over the loss of her husband, Jacques Demy, into other projects.
A survey of Varda's work in short films.
Agnes Varda introduces a collection of her short films released to DVD.
Reveals the courageous lives of pioneer camerawomen from Hollywood to Bollywood, from war zones to children’s laughter, in a way that has never been seen before. Based on a book by Alexis Krasilovsky, the film tells the stories of camerawomen surviving the odds in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries, as well as exploring their individual visions.
A documentary film directed by French Agnès Varda as an extension of the exhibition 'L'île et elle'. The installation 'Les veuves de Noirmoutier' (or 'The Widows of Noirmoutier') had various women filmed by Varda, young and old, who spoke about their widowhood and their residence on the island of Noirmoutier. The film is a montage of these meetings, which are both simple and melancholic.
Born in 1943, Sara Gómez studied literature, piano, and Afro-Cuban ethnography before becoming the first female Cuban filmmaker. A woman of great intelligence, independence and generosity, she was a revolutionary filmmaker with intersecting concerns about the Afro-Cuban community and the value of its cultural traditions, women's issues, and the treatment of the marginalized sectors of society.
In this short film from 2005, Pierre-William Glenn, shooting from the back of a motorcycle, retraces the steps Cléo takes through Paris in CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7.
Agnes Varda revisits the storefronts and some of the local people she interviewed 30 years earlier in Daguerréotypes (1976).
More than 40 years after making "Cléo de 5 à 7," Agnes Varda invites her star, two other cast members, and her assistant directors to look back. She takes us through the film, from opening scene to the end, visiting its Paris locales, placing her aged actors in the same spots, telling stories, and listening to others' reflections on the making of the film. She and they talk about making a film on a low budget, its showing at Cannes, and trying to fix a problem in the last shot. Her assistant directors discuss casting, costumes, sets, and the ways the film changed their approaches to filmmaking. Scenes from "Cléo" are included throughout the documentary.
A super short film to accompany the earlier documentary of the same name. A photoplay of various caryatids to be found in Paris.
From January to November 2004, as a kind of carnet de voyage alongside our other activities, we asked one and the same question of various people we met on our journeys, including friends: "Do you remember a moment in your life when something really changed?" We requested them to tell us a story to illustrate their reply, and we filmed them.
An exhaustive, deceptively simple essay on the complex relationship between cinema and the real world in one-and-a-half minutes. Colorful spinning tops rotate on a reflecting surface, the sounds of a merry-go-round give way to familiar music. The camera pans upwards, revealing Agnès Varda’s motionless face. From off-screen, her thoughts contradict the sounds of Strauss: “Ah no, not those Viennese waltzes … I’m thinking about film, about what happens every day. I’m thinking about bread, salt, earth, corn, bread, the sea, salt.” What follows are images (and sounds) of these essential things, a brief digression, with a musical transition between one take and the next, where there is time to take a closer look at things.
A theatrically-released compilation of three Varda shorts: "Salut les Cubains," "Ulysse" and "Ydessa, les ours et etc."
Ydessa Hendeles' exhibition entitled "The living and the Artificial" (consisting of works of art all comprising a photograph of living persons in the company of one or several teddy bears) had puzzled Agnès Varda so much that she decided to go to Toronto where the artist lives and interview her. In front of Agnes Varda's DV camera, Ydessa tells about the singularity of her artistic approach. She also expresses herself about the Holocaust, which both her parents survived.
An adventure of three characters: Clarisse, a psychic’s apprentice, Lazare, who works at the Parisian catacombs, and the bronze statue of a lion at the Denfert-Rochereau (in the 14th arrondissement). Clarisse and Laraze meet daily, but one day Lazare disappears and the lion disappears as well!
18 years after the making of the film "Vagabond", director Agnès Varda created this documentary which includes interviews with the cast.
A short piece in which Agnes Varda revisits actress Marthe Jarnias, who plays the old aunt in her 1985 film "Vagabond".
A short tribute to Zgougou, Varda’s cat who was given to her by Sabine Mamou.
When Regina Lambert returns from a vacation to Paris, she finds not only her apartment, but also her bank account completely empty. A visit to the police headquarters reveals that Charlie has been murdered and a lot of people are after his money. Regina now begins a dangerous search for the truth.
Agnéz Varda enjoyed making her scavenger film so much she went out with her handi-cam and did it again. The whopping great distribution can't have slowed her down either. One of the subjects says she shouldn't have been in the first one so much, so she minimises her presence - ineffectively because the winning, quirky first person author is still the star. Detail of the character who lives off garbage and runs in the Paris marathon is particularly intriguing. The insets of the first film, the hand made movie from the early years or the withered heart shape potato that got a mutter of recognition when I saw it, all liven up the film.
Nineteen people with differing degrees of visual impairment – from mild nearsightedness to total blindness – discuss how they see themselves, how they see others and how they perceive the world. Unusual images, of burning trees or empty deserts, link the interviews, which vary from deep to funny to poetic.
The film consists largely of a series of interviews with female filmmakers from several different countries and filmmaking eras. Some, such as Agnès Varda and Catherine Breillat (both from France), have been making films for decades in a conscious effort to provide an alternative to the male filmmaking model; others, such as Moufida Tlatli (Tunisia) and Carine Adler (England), are relative newcomers to directing, and their approaches seem more personal and less political. The film as a whole manages to cover some important topics in the feminist debate about film -- how does one construct a female gaze, how can one film nude bodies without objectifying the actors (of either sex), what constitutes a strong female role -- while also making it clear that “women’s film” comprises as many different approaches to filmmaking as there are female filmmakers.
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
Monsieur Cinema, a hundred years old, lives alone in a large villa. His memories fade away, so he engages a young woman to tell him stories about all the movies ever made. Also a line of movie stars comes to visit him giving him back the pleasure of life - but amongst them there are also some young students only striving after his money for the realization of their film projects. The two stories - Monsieur Cinema's and the young people's life - are told in parallel until they come together in the end when the old man plays a role in the film made by the students.
Agnès Varda's documentary portrait of her late husband, Jacques Demy. A companion piece to her Jacquot de Nantes.
Agnes Varda's documentary of the celebrations arising from the 25th anniversary of her husband Jacques Demy's film Les demoiselles de Rochefort.
An intimate window into one of the great movements in film history that brought about an evolution in the art of cinema. The documentary portrays the movement with insight on the lives and works of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and other principal players in the New Wave.
Jacquot Demy is a little boy at the end of the thirties. His father owns a garage and his mother is a hairdresser. The whole family lives happily and likes to sing and to go to the movies. Jacquot is fascinated by every kind of show (theatre, cinema, puppets). He buys a camera to shoot his first amateur film... An evocation of French cineast Jacques Demy's childhood and vocation for the cinema and the musicals.
The interests, obsessions, and fantasies of two singular artists converge in this inspired collaboration between Agnès Varda and her longtime friend the actor Jane Birkin. Made over the course of a year and motivated by Birkin’s fortieth birthday—a milestone she admits to some anxiety over—Jane B. by Agnès V. contrasts the private, reflective Birkin with Birkin the icon.
Documentary about women in the film industry. Interviews with directors, producers, writers, and actors include Karen Arthur, Lizzie Borden, Joyce Chopra, Martha Coolidge, Donna Deitch, Ann Hui, Euzhan Palcy, Agnès Varda, Margarethe von Trotta, Anne Wheeler, Sandy Wilson, Mai Zetterling
A lonely 40-year old woman finds herself shattering taboos by falling in love with the 14-year old Julien – but is it romance, or a desperate attempt to turn back time in the face of middle age?
Short directed by Agnès Varda in 1986 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the French Cinematheque.
Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. From this, the film flashes back to the weeks leading up to her death. Through these flashbacks, Mona gradually declines as she travels from place to place, taking odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Mona is fiercely independent, craving freedom over comfort, but it is this desire to be free that will eventually lead to her demise.
An unusual visit to a large, empty apartment. But is it empty or not? Maybe a family has lived there or is going to live there. Maybe a young girl is going to escape from there. Maybe some of the old-timers who lived there never left. The walls themselves tell the stories of the time passing by. - Fandor
Commissioned by French television, this is a short documentary on the neo-classical statues found throughout Paris, predominantly on the walls of buildings, holding up windows, roofs etc.
TV series directed by Varda in which she gives thoughts to her favorite images and why she is drawn to them (in short one minute segments per image)
After separating from the father of her son, a young French woman tries to find lodging and a fresh start in L.A. for herself and her son.
A documentary interview with the French actress on the sets of films in production.
In this story of friendship and reproductive rights, 14 years in the relationship between two very dissimilar women are chronicled. Pauline is a middle-class city girl, at odds with her very conventional family. Suzanne is several years older, a country girl with two illegitimate children and another (whom she cannot support) on the way. Pauline loans Suzanne money for an abortion. At this point, the two separate and communicate mainly through postcards. Some years later, they meet at an abortion rally, and they have many adventures and stories to share with one another.
A documentary about French film director Agnès Varda on the set of her 1977 film ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN'T. It includes interviews with Varda and the lead actors in the film.
An intimate portrait of the small shops and shopkeepers of the Rue Daguerre in Paris, a picturesque street that has been the filmmaker’s home for more than 50 years.
Made at a time when Iran had a seemingly revolving door for incoming European directors and bottomless funding for their projects, Plaisir d'amour en Iran is a short, sort of love story between a handsome Iranian (Ali Raffi) and a visiting French woman (Valérie Mairesse). The film was shot at the Shah Masjed in romantic Esfehan.
What does being a woman really mean? How do women live the status society reserves for them? A group of women, beautiful or not, young or not, gifted with motherly instinct or not, answer before Agnès Varda's camera.
A young Parisian woman begins a sordid affair with a middle-aged American businessman who lays out ground rules that their clandestine relationship will be based only on sex.
Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.
This riveting documentary, transports you to the pivotal Free Huey rally held on February 17th, 1968, at Oakland Auditorium in Alameda, California. Newton, the charismatic young college student who, along with Bobby Seale, created the Black Panther Party, had been jailed for allegedly killing a police officer. His arrest–widely believed at the time to be a setup–galvanized Party support throughout the nation and led to a boom in Party membership, bringing a new level of public attention to the Panthers’ cause.
While in San Francisco for the promotion of her last film in October 1967, Agnès Varda, tipped by her friend Tom Luddy, gets to know a relative she had never heard of before, Jean Varda, nicknamed "Yanco". This hitherto unknown uncle lives on a boat in Sausalito, is a painter, has adopted a hippie lifestyle and loves life. The meeting is a very happy one.
In seven different parts, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamees army during the Vietnam-war.
Documentary about the making of Marcel Carne's 1945 film Children of Paradise (France), interviewing the director, the actors and production designer, as well as other French directors.
Delphine and Solange are two sisters living in Rochefort. Delphine is a dancing teacher and Solange composes and teaches the piano. Maxence is a poet and a painter. He is doing his military service. Simon owns a music shop, he left Paris once month ago to come back where he fell in love 10 years ago. They are looking for love, looking for each other, without being aware that their ideal partner is very close...
After a road accident, a writer, Edgar, and his wife, Mylène, take up residence on an island off the coast of France to recuperate. Edgar soon recovers from his injuries and begins writing his next novel, seeking inspiration from the local people. His wife, however, has lost her voice and can only communicate through written notes. The islanders grow suspicious of the reclusive couple, their unease soon turning to aggression. Edgar is equally anxious about his neighbors, particularly a solitary widower, Ducasse, who has taken charge of a large consignment of crates. What secret project is Ducasse engaged in – and can it explain the strange behavior of the islanders?
Images and poems of the celebrated couple Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet. Elsa’s youth as recalled by Aragon, with commentary by Elsa.
Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker.
The workshop of painting, modeling and sculpture for children under fifteen, at the Museum of Decorative Arts, rue de Rivoli (1st arrondissement). Pierre Belvès, creator of the workshop, animates the work of the children. A report from the magazine "Chroniques de France", produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for dissemination abroad.
Made for Cinéastes de notre temps series. In 1964, several French New Wave auteurs discuss the success and crisis of the wave. Featuring Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rozier, Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Jean Rouch, and many others.
A half-hour photo montage made up of 1500 out of over 4000 pictures Agnès Varda took while vacationing in Cuba. It deals with the revolution led by Fidel Castro.
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
A subtitle warns, "beware of dark sunglasses." Anna and her lover, whose looks in bowler and bow tie are reminiscent of a young Buster Keaton, kiss chastely on a bridge overlooking the Seine. He dons sunglasses and waves as she runs down a stairway to the river's edge, then watches in horror as she's knocked flat and loaded into the back of a hearse. In vain, he gives chase. Disconsolate, he buys a large funeral wreath and a handkerchief from sympathetic vendors. He removes the glasses to wipe his eyes and realizes they are the cause of all his woe. He replays the farewell without the glasses.
Tongue-in-cheek look at the French Riviera, especially in summer when it overflows with tourists. Reviews its history and famous visitors; displays its faux-exotic buildings, its crowded beaches, its trees and monuments; and, pokes fun at the colors women wear and the vagaries of fashion. The film celebrates the use of "Eden" as a place name, suggesting that paradise comes to the coast after all are gone, perhaps only on a remote island beach.
Impressions of the rue Mouffetard, Paris 5, through the eyes of a pregnant woman.
A short documentary on the chateaux of the Loire in France was commissioned by the French Tourist Bureau.
A penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the inhabitants of Sète in the South of France.
At 35 years old, photographer JR is a street art worldwide star. Discovered after the Paris’ suburb riots of 2005 for his portraits of young people, his collages have adorned the galleries of the Louvre, the Pompidou Center, the Pantheon, the National Assembly ever since … From New York to Shanghai, and the Israeli-Palestinian wall to the US-Mexico border, he has stuck or exhibited giant photos on the walls of dozens of countries and associated hundreds of thousands of unknown artists with his projects. With the active collaboration of the artist himself, the documentary “# JR” tells the extraordinary adventure of this art activist whose spectacular interventions are all clear expressions of humanism, pacifism or remembrance relayed by his very strong involvement in social networks. For JR, art can help change the world.
