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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 30 March 2019
Agnes Varda, French New Wave pioneer, dies at 90

By JAKE COYLE thing difficult because in-
SAMUEL PETREQUIN side the difficulty, I wanted
Associated Press to hear her heart beating."
NEW YORK (AP) — Agnes The widely hailed "Cleo"
Varda, the French New built anticipation for her
Wave pioneer who for next film, "Happiness,"
decades beguiled, chal- which won the Silver Bear
lenged and charmed mov- award at the 1965 Berlin
iegoers in films that inspired Festival.
generations of filmmakers, Varda married Demy, the
has died. She was 90. "Umbrellas of Cherbourg"
Varda's production com- director, in 1962 and two
pany, Cine-Tamaris, said were married until his death
Varda died early morning in 1990. They worked sepa-
Friday at her home in Paris rately but alongside each
from cancer. other, regularly occupying
With a two-tone bowl hair- opposite sides of the court-
cut, the Belgian-born Varda yard of their Paris home.
was a spirited, diminutive The filmmaking couple also
figure who towered over spent several years in Holly-
more than a half century of wood in the late '60s. Demy
moviemaking. Her first film, made "Model Shop" there
made at the age of 27, while Varda befriended Jim
"La Pointe Courte," earned Morrison of the Doors (she
her the nickname Grand- was one of just a handful of
mother of the New Wave, people to attend Morrison's
even though she — the sole In this May 19, 2017 file photo, filmmaker Agnes Varda appears at the screening of the film "Vis- 1971 funeral in Paris' Père
woman among the move- ages, Villages," at the 70th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. Lachais cemetery), filmed
ment — was a contempo- Associated Press the Los Angeles-set "Lions
rary of its participants, in- Love" and interviewed the
cluding Jean-Luc Godard song but, to her surprise, drifter (Sandrine Bonnaire) coast. The movie was cut imprisoned Black Panther
and Jacques Demy, whom ended up with another de- discovered dead in a freez- by Alain Resnais but was leader Huey Newton for the
she later married. cade of work. "I'm 90 and ing ditch. regarded as too radical at 1968 documentary "Black
A photographer-turned- I don't care," she says into "When I started, my point the time and only had a Panthers."
filmmaker, Varda's films the camera in "Varda by was not to be a woman," limited release. Varda con- She and Demy had two
fluctuated between fiction Agnes." said Varda. "I wanted to do trasted the young couple's children together: Mathieu
and documentary, often In 2015, Varda was given radical cinema." story with the local villagers' Demy and Rosalie Varda,
blurring the line in between. an honorary Palme d'Or at Varda's death was immedi- struggle to survive, eventu- who both found career in
Her 1962 breakthrough, the Cannes Film Festival. ately felt across the movie ally linking the two seem- French filmmaking. Varda is
"Cleo From 5 to 7," fol- In 2017, she was given an industry. The Cannes Film ingly disparate ways of life. survived by both.
lowed a glamorous woman honorary Academy Award. Festival said: "The place she She deliberately used a Demy's death fueled Var-
(Corinne Marchand) in real But she was more content, occupied is irreplaceable. real fishing village, wanting da's late period of docu-
time across Paris while she she said, "in the margins." Agnès loved images, words to give the film the look of a mentaries, including sev-
awaited results of a cancer ''I'm flattered," she said of and people. She's one documentary. "I've always eral heartfelt tributes to her
exam. In her 2017 Oscar the Oscar, "but not that of those whose youth will been using reality as a tex- husband including 1991's
nominated road trip "Faces much." never fade." ''Moonlight" ture to understand better," "Jacquot de Nantes."
Places," she traversed the Varda's films quickly be- filmmaker Barry Jenkins re- she said. "I like for stories to "I had to stay alive even
French countryside with the came feminist landmarks called a legend whose "life look true." though he died. I made
street artist JR, pasting gi- and she a champion of and work were undeniably She made several docu- two films about him.
ant images of people they women behind the cam- fused." mentary shorts, but inad- Then I went off and I did
encountered on building era. One of the only female Arlette Varda was born equate funds prevented cinema. Fiction films are
facades. filmmakers in France when in Brussels, Belgium on Varda from making her beautiful but documenta-
"Life comes through the she started, she led an in- May 30, 1928 to a French next feature, "Cleo From ries put you at peace with
frame and through the surgency that continued, mother and Greek father. 5 to 7," until 1961. Backed the world. You try to make
stock. It's like a filter," Varda in greater number, through Varda, who later changed by French businessman the world understandable,
said in an interview in 2017. her life. At the 2018 Cannes her name to Agnes, started Georges de Beauregard, make the people come
"I feel I am an artist but I am Film Festival, she helped as a photographer after who had supported Jean- near to you."
a movie maker. I make a preside over a protest for studying literature and arts. Luc Godard's "Breathless," One of those documen-
film with my hands. I love gender equality on the red In 1951, she was appointed the film studied Cleo's taries, the 2000 film "The
the editing, I love the mix- carpet steps of the festival's official photographer of the evolvement from a shallow Gleaners and I," is consid-
ing. It's a tool to make other central Palais with 81 other Theatre National Populaire, pop star to an authentic ered by some her master-
people exist. It's giving un- women. and remained in that posi- human being capable of work. Documenting people
derstanding between peo- At the premiere of what tion for the next decade. understanding pain in her- who live off the garbage
ple." she called her "feminist mu- In 1954, well before Go- self and others. thrown out by others, it's a
Varda worked almost right sical," ''One Sings, the Other dard and Francois Truffaut "I obliged myself to follow meditation on waste and
up to her death, releasing Doesn't," in 1977, she intro- became the emblematic the time. Ninety minutes, reuse, art and death.
the scrapbook documen- duced "a film about wom- figures of the New Wave, one after another. Real "Filming, especially a docu-
tary "Varda by Agnes" ear- en who were also people." Varda's first movie, "La time and real geography," mentary, is gleaning," Var-
lier this year. She had origi- Her "Vagabond," which Pointe Courte," followed said Varda. "I filmed all the da told IndieWire. "Because
nally intended her 2008 cin- won the Golden Lion at the a couple going through steps, all the streets. What you pick what you find. You
ematic memoir "Beaches Venice Film Festival in 1985, a crisis in the small port of she does, it could be re- bend. You go around. You
by Agnes" to be her swan followed a young female Sete on the Mediterranean traced. I gave myself some- are curious."q