Agnes Varda is one of the directors tha made their mark on the world cinema! And she is one of the pioneers of the French New Wave!
Her death made us very sad! So let’s dive into her life and career!
- Agnès Varda was born on 30 May 1928
- She died on 29 March 2019
- Agnes Varda was a Belgian-born French film director
- Her films, photographs, and art installations focused on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary
- With a distinctive experimental style
- Film historians have cited Varda’s work as central to the development of the French New Wave
- Her employment of location shooting and non-professional actors were unconventional in the context of 1950s French cinema
- Agnes Varda was born Arlette Varda on 30 May 1928 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
- She was the daughter of Christiane and Eugène Jean Varda, an engineer
- Her mother was from Sète, France
- And her father came from a family of Greek refugees from Asia Minor
- She was the third of five children
- When she was 18 Varda legally changed her name to Agnès
- During World War II Varda lived on a boat in Sète with the rest of her family
- Agnes Varda attended the Lycée Victor-Duruy
- She received a Bachelor’s degree in literature and psychology from the Sorbonne
- She did not get along with her fellow students at the Sorbonne
- Agnes Varda intended to become a museum curator and studied art history at the École du Louvre
- But decided to study photography at the Vaugirard school of photography instead
- She studied art history and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts
- Agnes Varda began her career as a still photographer
- Before becoming one of the major voices of the Left Bank Cinema and the French New Wave
- However, she maintained a fluid interrelationship between photographic and cinematic forms
- The beginning of her career pre-dates the start of the Nouvelle vague (French New Wave)
- But contains many elements specific to that movement
- While working as a photographer, Varda became interested in making a film
- Although she stated that she knew little about the medium and had only seen around twenty films by the age of twenty-five
- She found the filmmaking process difficult because it didn’t allow the same freedom as writing a novel
- Agnes Varda stated that she wanted to make films that related to her time
- Rather than focusing on traditions or classical standards
- Agnes Varda’s films belong more precisely to the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) cinema movement
- The Left Bank side of the New Wave movement embraced a more experimental style than the Cahiers du Cinema group
- However, this distinction is ironic considering the New Wave itself was considered experimental in its treatment of traditional methodologies and subjects
- Still, she is considered the grandmother and the mother of the French New Wave
- La Pointe Courte is unofficially but widely considered to be the first film of the movement
- It was the first of many films she would make that focused on issues faced by ordinary people
- Late in her life, she said showed a disinterest in accounts of people in power
- In 1971, Agnes Varda was one of the 343 women who signed the Manifesto of the 343
- Admitting they had had an abortion despite it being illegal in France at the time and asking for abortions to be made legal
- In 1977, Varda founded her own production company, Cine-Tamaris, in order to have more control in shooting and editing
- In 2013, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held Varda’s first American exhibition called “Agnes Varda in Californialand”
- The exhibition featured a sculptural installation, several photographs, and short films
- It was inspired by time she spent in Los Angeles in the 1960s
- Agnes Varda died of cancer on 29 March 2019 in Paris
- At the age of 90
- In 1958 while living in Paris, she met her future husband, Jacques Demy
- Also a French director
- They moved in together in 1959
- She was married to Demy until his death in 1990
- Agnes Varda had two children
- A daughter, Rosalie Varda with Antoine Bourseiller
- And a son, Mathieu with Demy
- Agnes Varda worked on Academy nominated documentary Faces Places with her daughter
- Agnes Varda was the cousin of painter Jean Varda
- In 1967 while living in California Varda met her father’s cousin for the first time
- He is the subject of her short documentary Uncle Yanco
- Aamed after Jean Varda who referred to himself as Yanco
- And was affectionately called “uncle” by Varda
- Due to the difference in age between them
- She made many notable films that you should check out
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