Ô saisons, ô châteaux
Agnès Varda, France 1957, 21min.
Which soul is without fault? A stroll along the chateaus of the Loire, in chronological order by construction date, with poems from the 16th century and reflections by gardeners.
Elsa la Rose
Agnès Varda, France 1965, 20min.
A portrait of the writers Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet. Images and poems about the famous couple living in Montparnasse amidst crazy times. The youth of Elsa is recounted by Aragon with commentary by Elsa.
Oncle Yanco
Agnès Varda, France 1967, 22min.
A documentary portrait of the painter Jean Varda, Agnès Varda’s uncle. In the aquatic suburbs of San Francisco, intellectual center and heart of bohemia, he cruises in a sailboat and paints celestial and byzantine cities, because he is Greek. Meanwhile he is very connected to the American youth movement and welcomes hippies and drop-outs on his house boat. In this short film, Varda shows how she discovered her uncle from America and what a wonderful man she finds him to be. |
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Ulysse
Agnès Varda, France 1982, 21min.
At the seaside, a goat, a child and a man. This is a photograph that Agnès Varda made in 1954: the sheep is dead, the child’s name is Ulysse and the man is naked. Starting from this still image, the film explores the imaginary and the real.
T’as de beaux escaliers, tu sais
Agnès Varda, France 1986, 3min.
How to make, in 150 seconds, an homage to the French Cinémathèque in the year of its 50th birthday, if not by filming the 50 steps of the staircase, which rise up towards the museum and descend into the obscure cinema where masterpieces about famous staircases are projected! |
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Varda Short Films
French. Subtitles: English
Director
Varda was born Arlette Varda 1928 in Brussels, Belgium. She studied Art History at the Ecole du Louvre and worked as a photographer before moving into film. Despite similarities to the French New Wave, films by Varda belonged more precisely to the Rive Gauche movement, along with Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Marguerite Duras a.o. Agnès Varda was married to film director Jacques Demy from 1962 until his death in 1990. |