Agnès Varda
| Agnès Varda | |
|---|---|
 Varda receiving an honor at the Guadalajara Film Festival |
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| Born | 30 May 1928 Brussels, Belgium |
| Occupation | director, screenwriter, editor, actor, producer, installation artist, photographer |
| Years active | 1955 - present |
Agnès Varda (born 30 May 1928) is a French film director and professor at European Graduate School.1 Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style.
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Life and career
Varda was born Arlette Varda in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of Christiane (née Pasquet) and Eugene Jean Varda, an engineer.2 Her mother was French and her father's family were Greek refugees from Asia Minor.
Varda studied Art History at the Ecole du Louvre before getting a job as the official photographer for the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris.3 She liked photography but was interested in moving into film. After spending a few days filming the small French fishing town of La Pointe Courte for a terminally ill friend who could no longer visit on his own, Varda decided to shoot a feature film of her own. Thus in 1954, Varda’s first film, La Pointe Courte, about an unhappy couple working through their relationship in a small fishing town, was released. The film is a stylistic precursor to the French New Wave.4
Despite similarities to the French New Wave, films by Varda belonged more precisely to the complementary Rive Gauche (Left Bank) cinema movement, along with Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Cayrol and Henri Colpi. The group was strongly tied to the nouveau roman movement in literature and politically was positioned to the Left. Like the French New Wave, its members would often collaborate with each other.
Varda was married to the film director Jacques Demy from 1962 until his death in 1990.
Varda was one of the five persons to attend Jim Morrison's burial in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Awards and accolades
- For the 1985 documentary-style feature film Vagabond/Without Roof or Rule she received the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival.
- In 2009 The Beaches of Agnès won the best documentary film of the Cesar Award.5
- On April 12, 2009, she was made Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur.6
Selected filmography
| Year | Film | English Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | La Pointe Courte | — | Director, Writer |
| 1962 | Cléo de 5 à 7 | Cléo from 5 to 7 | Director, Writer |
| 1965 | Le Bonheur | Happiness | Director, Writer |
| 1969 | Lions Love | Lions Love | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1975 | Daguerréotypes | — | Director, Writer |
| 1977 | L'Une chante, l'autre pas | One Sings, the Other Doesn't | Director, Writer |
| 1980–1981 | Documenteur | Documenteur | Director, Writer |
| 1985 | Sans toit ni loi | Vagabond | Director, Writer, Editor |
| 1986–1987 | Jane B. par Agnès V. | Jane B. by Agnes V. | Director, Writer, Editor |
| 1987 | Le Petit amour | Kung-Fu Master | Director, Writer |
| 1991 | Jacquot de Nantes | — | Director, Writer |
| 1993 | Les demoiselles ont eu 25 ans | The Young Girls Turn 25 | Director, Writer |
| 1994 | Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma | A Hundred and One Nights | Director, Writer |
| 2000 | Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse | The Gleaners and I | Director, Writer, Producer, Editor |
| 2002 | Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse... deux ans après | The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later | Director, Editor |
| 2003 | Lion volatil, Le | — | Director, Writer, Producer, Editor |
| 2008 | Les plages d'Agnès | The Beaches of Agnès | Director, Writer, Producer |
References
- ^ See: Agnès Varda Faculty Page @ European Graduate School
- ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/29/Agnes-Varda.html
- ^ Smith, Alison. Agnes Varda Manchester University Press, 1998. Pg 3.
- ^ Neupert, Richard. A History of the French New Wave Cinema University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. Pg. 57.
- ^ http://www.lescesarducinema.com/#palmares
- ^ [1]
External links
- Agnès Varda Faculty Page @ European Graduate School Biography, bibliography, films and quotes.
- Agnès Varda at the Internet Movie Database
- Biography on newwavefilm.com
- Ciné-Tamaris
- Jonathan Romney, The Beaches of Agnès (Sight & Sound 'Film of the Month')
- "A Talk: Agnès Varda ," 2009, (Frieze Foundation Talks)
- Agnès Varda talks about cinema and her work
Further reading
- How Agnès Varda "invented" the New Wave by Ginette Vincendeau, Four by Agnes Varda, Criterion, 2008
- Smith, Alison. Agnès Varda Manchester University Press, 1998. Pg 3.
- Neupert, Richard. A History of the French New Wave Cinema. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI. 2007. Pg 57.
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