The Beaches of Agnès

“If they open me up, they'll find beaches,” asserts octogenarian filmmaker Agnès Varda, one of cinema's great masters. From to , her work spans fiction and documentary, often blending the two together and defying genre. Varda once lamented, “You say documentary and people say, 'What a bore!’ We should have middle words.” is an autobiographical film, an accumulation of memories rich with imaginative texture. Varda takes us on a surrealist journey through her life, on a magic carpet ride of images, photographs, film clips, stories, installations and scenes. Beginning with images of family, we cross the Left Bank of the Nouvelle Vague – the group of young, innovative filmmakers that included Chris Marker, Varda’s life partner Jacques Demy, and of course Varda herself. From her hometown of Sète to the rue Daguerre in Paris where she now lives, the film circumnavigates a resplendent life. This is a brilliant construction, a montage mosaic full of self-reflection, random thoughts, memories and observations in which form and content are no longer distinguishable from each other. Varda stimulates, moves and inspires with her humor, her imagination and her completely original cinematic voice.