Agnes Varda trivia: 60 facts about the French director!

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!

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