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The year 2019 took away from us beloved arts personalities: actors such as Anna Karina and Peter Fonda, writers such as Toni Morrison and once-in-a-generation filmmaker, Agnès Varda.
On 29 March 2019, Varda bid adieu to this world. In doing so, she left behind a lasting film legacy that would inspire generations of filmmakers to come. Our memory can have a recency bias, so it’s easy to take for granted the lasting impact her style and the French New Wave movement have had on the cinema we consume today.
From being the forerunner of the post-modern docu-fiction style to incorporating the feminist gaze and pushing formalist conventions in her narrative, Varda’s work defied genre expectations to create a new kind of visual grammar. You can even see the roots of hyper-surrealism and symmetrical obsession associated with Wes Anderson in Varda’s short film Uncle Yanco way back in 1968.
Whether you want to dip your toes into the world of Varda for the first time or have been a long-time Varda convert, the has you covered.
La Pointe Courte (1956)
At just under 80 minutes, Varda’s debut feature is astonishing in its self-assuredness. It’s important to note that La Pointe Courte pre-dates the French New Wave movement, in the sense that much of the visual style and experimentation that would become characteristic of the Cahiers du Cinéma cohort comes after Varda’s debut film. One can therefore argue that Varda kickstarts the French New Wave, and her first film is an important cinematic landmark marking a change in visual language on celluloid.
Inspired by William Faulkner’s 1939 novel The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem), the film follows a married couple Lui and Elle (played by Philippe Noiret and Silvia Monfort) as they try to work through their marital troubles in a small town in the south of France. The film is impressionistic and uses abstractions to mirror the inner turmoil of the protagonists juxtaposed against the larger troubles that the town is experiencing. Varda’s love for still photography and photojournalism are strongly evident here.
Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961)
If I had to make a list (at gunpoint) of films you must see before you die, then Cleo From 5 to 7 would be an automatic shoe-in. It’s hard to overstate the lasting impression this film has had on cinematic culture. Think breaking the fourth wall in Fleabag was cool? Well, Cleo From 5 to 7 did that in 1961. What about jump cuts to signify a disorienting feeling of time passing by? It’s Cleo again. What about using real-time narration as federal agent Jack Bauer goes against the clock to save the world in the TV series 24? Yep, you guessed it, already done in Cleo.
The film follows a self-absorbed pop star Cleo (played by Corinne Marchand), who is forced to re-evaluate her life and how others perceive her as she awaits the final results of a possible cancer diagnosis. Divided into 12 chapters, the various events occurring on screen are moments in time that happen to Cleo as she roams the Parisian streets between the hours of 5 and 7pm. A strong feminist aesthetic permeates the film, as Cleo’s sense of vanity is reinforced by those around her, and Varda’s subtle commentary implies that for the feminist project to be successful, entire social structures would need to be radically re-examined and reimagined.
One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977)
This is arguably the most tender, heartwarming and life-affirming film that Varda made in her illustrious career. If you’re unfamiliar with Varda’s cinematic style and the themes she likes to revisit, this is the film I’d recommend you start with to get acquainted.
It’s interesting to note that the film, described by Varda herself as a “feminist musical”, was actually panned by critics upon its initial release when it . The initial critical reception of the film hasn’t stopped it from becoming a cult favourite among movie-goers, though.
The film follows two friends at different stages of their lives, Pauline and Suzanne (played by Valérie Mairesse and Thérèse Liotard), over the course of 14 years of their blossoming friendship and sisterhood against the backdrop of abortion rights and the advent of the Women’s movement in France during the 1970s. Notice the docu-fiction influences at play here – the film is as much about charting the progress of French women’s rights at a given point in history as much as it’s about the lives of our two protagonists.
Making this film a musical gives it a sense of warmth and lightness of touch usually associated with Varda’s long-time partner Jacques Demy and his musicals such as and .(Both films are also in the .)
Vagabond (1985)
One of my absolute favourite Varda films is also one of her more challenging and bleaker works. Vagabond is a film where Varda’s docu-fiction and photography roots are front and centre, and her feminist critique of social structures that subjugate and oppress women, overt and obvious.
A young drifter called Mona (a career-defining performance by Sandrine Bonnaire) is found frozen to death in a ditch in the opening frames of the film. Varda uses this bleak endpoint to mount an investigation into what might’ve led to Mona’s untimely demise, relying mostly on flashbacks and interviews with characters who claim to have known our protagonist. The film constantly plays with our perception of what’s real and what’s not, a conundrum that’s ever more pronounced given the fact that Varda’s cast mostly consists of other non-professional actors.
Jane B. for Agnès V. (1987)
One of the most fascinating things about Varda was that she was a profoundly interesting subject herself whenever she chose to turn the camera around to frame her own personality as both the subject and the object of discussion. And this is precisely what happens in Jane B. for Agnès V.
The film is a portrait of Jane Birkin’s life as a singer, actress and fellow feminist, and came about after Birkin was incredibly moved by Varda’s previous film, Vagabond. Interestingly, even though the primary subject of this film is Birkin, the film is very much about Varda’s philosophy of wanting to create a different kind of visual style through her cinema, her take on the ethics of documentary filmmaking and what feminism means to her.
Watch this film to get an insight into why Varda’s legacy shall endure, as she plays around with form, raises ethical questions about the ego of a filmmaker, and shares her incredible ability to humanise anyone who catches her cinematic eye.
