Varda by Agnès

February 4, 2020 · Central Cinema · 7:00 p.m.

“It’s a perfect introduction and a lovely valediction.” — New York Times (99% Fresh)

“In 1994, with a retro at the Cinémathèque française, I published a book entitled Varda by Agnès. Twenty-five years later, the same title is given to my film made of moving images and words, with the same project: to give keys to my body of work. I give my own keys, my thoughts, nothing pretentious, just keys.”

The final film from the late, beloved Agnès Varda is a characteristically playful, profound, and personal summation of the director’s own brilliant career. At once impish and wise, Varda acts as our spirit guide on a free-associative tour through her six-decade artistic journey, shedding new light on her films, photography, and recent installation works while offering her one-of-a-kind reflections on everything from filmmaking to feminism to aging.

Suffused with the people, places, and things she loved—Jacques Demy, cats, colors, beaches, heart-shaped potatoes—this wonderfully idiosyncratic work of imaginative autobiography is a warmly human, touchingly bittersweet parting gift from one of cinema’s most luminous talents.

About the Filmmaker

A peer of and occasional collaborator with the often-discussed men of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda made her first feature film, La Pointe Courte (1955), four years before The 400 Blows (Truffaut) and Breathless (Godard), and over the next seven decades completed more than 40 films. Varda passed away in March 2019 at the age of 81.