for this week's Tribune : 'The Beaches of Agnès' [7/10]

for this week’s Tribune : ‘The Beaches of Agnès’ [7/10]

time and tide : French poster for THE BEACHES OF AGNES

The Beaches of Agnès
Director: Agnès Varda

It's surprisingly rare for veteran directors to make retrospective documentaries on their own artistic careers, but if Agnès Varda's The Beaches of Agnès is any guide then more should consider doing so. A genuinely playful wander down les chemins des memoires by one of France's most revered film-makers, the picture is sufficiently erudite and extract-studded for cinephiles' needs but also accessible to those for whom her name rings only vague bells (Varda's best-known works include 1962's Cleo from 5 to 7; 1977's One Sings, the Other Doesn't; 1985's Vagabond; and 2001's The Gleaners and I.)
   Made to coincide with last year's 80th birthday of the Brussels-born, half-Greek, French-based photographer/writer/director – here a genially wise, slightly batty kind of boho-granny, seldom off-screen for long – The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d'Agnès) neither presumes foreknowledge of its subject(s) nor bogs down in excessive background exposition about the artistic notables on view. Instead it nimbly treads a path between these hazards, just as the ever-sprightly Varda herself is seen wandering along the shoreline on the various beaches – some natural (Belgium, California), some artificial (Paris) – that are central to many of her reveries.
   Elfin, bob-haired, and very fond of dressing-up whenever possible (including one appearance as a giant pomme de terre) she's marvellous company as she "walks backwards" through her colorfully well-traveled life, along the way pausing to discuss friends and collaborators. These prove to be a decidedly starry bunch – Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Calder, Harrison Ford and even Jim Morrison (with whom Varda collaborated during her late-sixties Los Angeles sojourn) put in cameo appearances.
   More time is devoted to key figures of the French New Wave (Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, etc), and to the parallel 'Left Bank' (Rive gauche) school to which Varda belonged along with the likes of Chris Marker – who 'appears' here in the form of a giant cartoon tomcat with a 'vocoded' voice (this feline is Marker's preferred alter-ego avatar, and amusingly bears the nom d'ecran 'Guillaume-en-Egypt').
   Then there's her beloved, much-missed filmmaker husband Jacques Demy (1931-1990). Varda co-directed Demy's Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967) and her 1990 tribute-documentary Jacquot de Nantes was completed as her spouse was dying of AIDS. Death is, indeed, a semi-constant presence here, but never in morbid or depressing fashion. The tone is, instead bright and breezy – sometimes defiantly so – though always with a slight undercurrent of bonjour, tristesse. Best of all, Varda shows no sign of slowing down as she strides nonchalantly, inspiringly, into her ninth decade.
   She says this may be her last film made for the cinema, as she intends to concentrate on small-screen and installation projects from now on – indeed, The Beaches of Agnès also exists in a longer format for TV screenings and eventual DVD release. But you really should try to catch it on the big screen if you can – this is one of the year's most enlightening and satisfying new releases.

Neil Young
22nd September, 2009
written for 1st October issue of Tribune magazine

THE BEACHES OF AGNES : [7/10] : Les Plages d'Agnès : France 2008 : Agnes VARDA : 113m (BBFC) : seen at Metro cinema, Vienna, 28th April 2008 (public show – complimentary press ticket) - Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival). [original review]