Varda by Agnès
After many were first exposed to her work with the 2017 film Faces Places, Agnès Varda quickly became a Film Twitter favourite with more and more discovering her decades of classics — including films like La Pointe Courte, Cléo from 5 to 7, Vagabond, and Le Bonheur finally getting the attention they deserve. Tragically, Varda passed away in early 2019 just before the release of her final feature Varda by Agnès, a comprehensive deep dive into the works of Agnès Varda by mixing a series of public conversations she held with new footage she shot specifically for the film. From Varda's start making short films to the rise of her film career before also finding love for visual art exhibits, Varda by Agnès not only looks at the work of Varda's career as a whole but her more deep-seated desire to explore the human condition in unique and essential evolutionary ways.
The best way to describe Varda by Agnès would be comparing it to that of an excellent university lecture. Made for fans of Varda's career, this goes into just about everything one could want to know about Varda's career and her perspective on each project the auteur involved herself. There is not a project or film not included; in this way, the film is quite engaging and a fit tribute of respect to one of the great creators of the modern era. Varda by Agnès is an engaging watch at the very least. Whether it is bringing to light small technical choices that are easy to miss on an initial watching of Varda's films or a better perspective of what she tries to accomplish with her films, Varda by Agnès will in some way make audiences appreciate her work more and bring at least something striking for the viewer that was not apparent beforehand.
With that said, it also feels long, merely because of how much there is to cover. Split into a mini-series but given a cinematic release, the film itself is only two hours long but considering it is a comprehensive review of a career that lasted nearly 70 years, the weight of the amount of information given is felt similar to that of a university lecture. The lecture might be highly engaging but the amount of time and length is also equally present. Similar to the experience gathered from film focused university lectures, the actual balance between clips and conversation also can be jarring at times. More than anything else, Varda by Agnès makes the viewer want to watch all of Agnès Varda's movies again and sometimes when showcasing a clip from one of the works being talked about, the conversation can seem a bit dull in contrast to the actual work itself. It feels somewhat disappointing when the film pulls away from such a masterclass on features, such as like Cléo from 5 to 7, in which the audience becomes entranced with Varda's charm and insight.
With this said, one of the things most effective and impressive about the film would be the editing. Some of the cuts and choices made when presenting this story are clever, such as a scene where Agnès is sitting, enjoying a beach, discussing her fear of no one seeing her work; the clip from the beach then transforms into an empty, silent theatre. Scenes and cuts like this were not only just creative but also had high effectiveness in bringing the weight Varda felt like a creator to life.
Where for some, Varda by Agnès might seem like an overly long and possibly even dull film, it still serves as a worthy retrospective of a legendary career that will live on just like the legacy of the subject matter herself. Agnès Varda had a legendary and revolutionary career and having a project like this to tie it all together and build a solid thesis to look at her career — both on and beyond film — is something scarce to get but something to celebrate. For fans of Varda, this is a must-watch film and gives Agnès the send-off she deserves.
Varda by Agnès is released November 20th 2019 in the U.S.
