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Jan 31, 2024 · From La Pointe-Courte to The Beaches of Agnès, these are the best Agnès Varda films that everyone should watch at least once, based on their Letterboxd scores.
- Daniela Gama
Here are some reasons why you should watch Agnes Varda films: She was a key figure in the French New Wave movement: Agnes Varda was one of the few female filmmakers who was part of the French New Wave movement in the 1950s and 60s.
- Alex Greenberger
- Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) This is quite possibly theVarda film—the one that made her career, and the one that will likely always define her legacy for all the right reasons.
- Black Panthers (1968) Empathy is crucial for documentary filmmaking, and Varda knew this better than most. For Black Panthers, a documentary about the student activist movement that was shot while living with her husband, fellow filmmaker Jacques Demy, in Los Angeles, Varda established an unusual connection with her subjects, allowing them to speak for extended periods of time and observing them with an amount of understanding that was unusual for white filmmakers of the era.
- One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977) The radical leftist politics of the French New Wave are typically more closely associated with filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, who made fiery works that were explicitly critical of colonialism, racism, and misogyny.
- Mur Murs (1981) During the 1960s, while living with Demy in L.A., Varda initiated a short period in which she made lovely, incisive English-language films about the city and its odd denizens.
- Rocco Thompson
- La Pointe Courte (1956) Varda’s career begin in when she transitioned from still photography to film with this study of a marriage gone to pot. Juxtaposing the struggles of a couple (Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noire) reconsidering their relationship with a docu-style realistic portrayal of the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the locals in the tiny fishing village in which they live, Varda’s desire to depict the world as she saw it around her rather than adhering to classical standards was first crystallized here, and La Pointe Courte is now considered one of the progenitors of the French New Wave.
- Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) It’s arguable that in Corinne Marchand’s singer, drifting throughout Paris awaiting the results of a biopsy, Varda created the first cinematic rendering of a truly female gaze.
- Le Bonheur (1965) In this provocative tale of a young father, François (Jean-Claude Drouot) who engages in an extramarital affair with an attractive postal worker, Varda uses an unexpectedly blithe tone to make mock of and critique the self-centered, pleasure-seeking tendencies of men at the expense of their wives.
- Les Créatures (1966) Despite starring two of France’s biggest stars (Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli) and landing smack dab in the middle of the New Wave, Varda’s fourth feature film was a failure upon release and is still underseen and appreciated--so much so that the director, herself later “recycled” it into a successful installation piece.
- Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962) Released in 1962, Cléo From 5 to 7 is one of Agnès Varda’s most famous movies, and there are plenty of good reasons as to why that’s the case.
- The Beaches of Agnès (2008) 2008’s The Beaches of Agnès is another one of Varda’s documentary movies, and she puts herself at the center of the film.
- Vagabond (1985) Vagabond arrived in the movie world with fanfare, as it took home the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival when it was screened there.
- Faces Places (2017) When Faces Places was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival, many would not realize this would be the second to last movie that Varda would ever create.
Agnès Varda received more votes than any other director in BBC Culture’s poll of the greatest films made by women. Caryn James explores why the filmmaker is gaining recognition.
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Feb 27, 2023 · From My Own Private Idaho to After Hours, these are the best movies recommended by Agnès Varda.
