The Beaches of Agnes (2008). Photofest.
(Agnès Varda, France 2008, 110 min., 35mm, French and English w/subtitles)
In Memoriam: Agnès Varda. Agnès Varda (1928–2019) studied art history at university, intending to seek a career as a museum curator, but turned to photography as a means of expression and a source of income. Through photography, she became interested in filmmaking, and the two disciplines can be seen blended in her work. Varda is referred to as the mother of the French New Wave; her first film, La Pointe Courte (1955), is commonly accepted as the first film in that movement. Over the course of more than fifty films—short and feature-length, narrative and documentary—Varda honed her method of filmmaking, which she described as cinécriture, or cinematic writing, allowing all elements of the filmmaking process to contribute to the overall message. In The Beaches of Agnès, Varda turns the camera on herself as she produces a richly cinematic self-portrait that touches on everything from the feminist movement and the Black Panthers to the films of husband Jacques Demy and the birth of the French New Wave.
Special introduction by Rebecca DeRoo, associate professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, and author of Agnès Varda between Film, Photography, and Art.