The Cinema of Agnès Varda: Resistance and Eclecticism

169 Pages·2014·3.05 MB·English

by  Delphine Benezet

‘Fills a crucial gap in the scholarship on Agnès Varda by CDIRUECTTORSS’
tackling her more neglected films and various installations.
Written in a clear, flowing prose, this volume illuminates
Varda in a refreshing, new light.’
florence martin Goucher College
Agnès Varda, a pioneer of the French New Wave, has been
making radical films for more than half a century. This
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volume considers her production as a whole, revisiting
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overlooked films such as Mur, Murs/Documenteur (1980–81) c
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and connecting the filmmaker’s cinema to her recent n
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installation work, as well as in-depth analysis of her major m
works including La Pointe Court (1954), Cléo de 5 à 7 a

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(1961) and Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000). This study
f

demonstrates how Varda has resisted norms of representation
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and production diktats and shows how she has elaborated g
a personal repertoire of images, characters and settings that n
all provide insight on their cultural and political contexts. è
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This book therefore offers new readings of the director’s

multifaceted rêveries, arguing her work should be understood v
a
as an aesthetically influential and ethically-driven production
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in which cinema is both a political and collaborative practice
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and a synesthetic art form. a

DIRECTORS’ directors’ cuts focus on the work of the most significant the cinema of ag n è s va r d a
CUTS
contemporary international filmmakers, illuminating the creative
dynamics of World Cinema. d resistance and eclecticism
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delphine bénézet teaches comparative literature in the p
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School of Languages, Linguistics and Film at Queen Mary,
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University of London.
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delphine bénézet
cover design
WALLFLOWER PRESS film studies [email protected]
DC Varda_cover.indd 1 10/03/2014 14:00
the cinema of AGNÈS VARDA
DIRECTORS’ CUTS
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Other selected titles in the Directors’ Cuts series:
the cinema of ALEXANDER SOKUROV:figures of paradox
JEREMI SZANIAWSKI
the cinema of MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM:borders, intimacy, terror
BRUCE BENNETT
the cinema of RAÚL RUIZ:impossible cartographies
MICHAEL GODDARD
the cinema of MICHAEL MANN:vice and vindication
JONATHAN RAYNER
the cinema of AKI KAURISMÄKI:contrarian stories
ANDREW NESTINGEN
the cinema of RICHARD LINKLATER:walk, don’t run
ROB STONE
the cinema of BÉLA TARR:the circle closes
ANDRÁS BÁLINT KOVÁCS
the cinema of STEVEN SODERBERGH:indie sex, corporate lies, and digital videotape
ANDREW DE WAARD & R. COLIN TATE
the cinema of TERRY GILLIAM:it’s a mad world
edited by JEFF BIRKENSTEIN, ANNA FROULA & KAREN RANDELL
the cinema of TAKESHI KITANO:flowering blood
SEAN REDMOND
the cinema of THE DARDENNE BROTHERS:responsible realism
PHILIP MOSLEY
the cinema of MICHAEL HANEKE:europe utopia
edited by BEN McCANN & DAVID SORFA
the cinema of SALLY POTTER:a politics of love
SOPHIE MAYER
the cinema of JOHN SAYLES:a lone star
MARK BOULD
the cinema of DAVID CRONENBERG:from baron of blood to cultural hero
ERNEST MATHIJS
the cinema of JAN SVANKMAJER:dark alchemy
edited by PETER HAMES
the cinema of NEIL JORDAN:dark carnival
CAROLE ZUCKER
the cinema of LARS VON TRIER:authenticity and artifice
CAROLINE BAINBRIDGE
the cinema of WERNER HERZOG:aesthetic ecstasy and truth
BRAD PRAGER
the cinema of TERRENCE MALICK:poetic visions of america (second edition)
edited by HANNAH PATTERSON
the cinema of ANG LEE:the other side of the screen
WHITNEY CROTHERS DILLEY
the cinema of STEVEN SPIELBERG:empire of light
NIGEL MORRIS
the cinema of TODD HAYNES:all that heaven allows
edited by JAMES MORRISON
the cinema of ROMAN POLANSKI:dark spaces of the world
edited by JOHN ORR & ELZBIETA OSTROWSKA
the cinema of JOHN CARPENTER:the technique of terror
edited by IAN CONRICH & DAVID WOODS
the cinema of MIKE LEIGH:a sense of the real
GARRY WATSON
the cinema of NANNI MORETTI:dreams and diaries
EWA MAZIERSKA & LAURA RASCAROLI
the cinema of DAVID LYNCH:american dreams, nightmare visions
edited by ERICA SHEEN & ANNETTE DAVISON
the cinema of KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI:variations on destiny and chance
MAREK HALTOF
the cinema of GEORGE A. ROMERO:knight of the living dead
TONY WILLIAMS
the cinema of KATHRYN BIGELOW:hollywood transgressor
edited by DEBORAH JERMYN & SEAN REDMOND
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the cinema of
AGNÈS VARDA
resistance and eclecticism
Delphine Bénézet
WALLFLOWER PRESS london & new york
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A Wallflower Press Book
Published by
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York • Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © Delphine Benezet 2014
All rights reserved
Wallflower Press® is a registered trademark of Columbia University Press
A complete CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-231-16974-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-16975-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-85061-2 (e-book)
Series design by Rob Bowden Design
Cover image of Agnès Varda courtesy of the Kobal Collection
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Agnès_Varda_pages.indb 4 10/3/14 14:02:03
contents

Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Beginnings 1
1 Agnès Varda: A Woman Within History 9
2 Aesthetics and Technique 41
3 Varda’s Ethics of Filming 71
4 Poetics of Space 89
5 Cinécriture and Originality 111
Conclusion 139
Filmography 145
Bibliography 150
Index 159
v
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acknowledgements
I would never have been able to write this book without the support of many friends
and colleagues in London, Montreal, France and elsewhere.
I am grateful to Yoram Allon, Commissioning Editor at Wallflower Press, for his
interest in the project at the very beginning, and his ongoing support as the manu-
script gradually took shape over the months and years. Several colleagues read early
drafts of chapters and provided invaluable feedback, including Vincent Bouchard,
Jenny Chamarette, Sébastien Côté, Libby Saxton and Frank Runcie. Naomi Segal and
Gill Rye offered advice and opportunities to present some of this project as a work
in progress while I was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Germanic and Romance
Studies at the University of London.
Friends inside and outside academia have helped by providing distraction and
encouragement when needed, and here I wish to thank Abi Brown, Donna Barry,
Tess Marais, Izabella Potapowicz, Aino Rinhaug, Caroline de St Quentin and May
Telmissany.
Last, but certainly not least, my family have been there for me throughout. My
husband, Chris Minns, offered both unwavering patience and a ruthless critical eye,
and Colin and Lucy have provided a daily reminder of the importance of life beyond
the ‘life of the mind’. This book is for them.
vii
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INTRODUCTION
Beginnings
‘Working from the cinema or on the cinema means starting from the film, and
going back to it.’ (Lagny 1994: 41)
‘Les femmes soit disant on est toutes les mêmes! Emmerdeuses, futiles,
bavardes, connasses, salopes, etc!’ (‘Because we women are supposedly all the
same! Nuisances, frivolous, gossips, bitches, sluts, etc!’)
Quote from Réponses de Femmes (Agnès Varda, 1975)
Je suis comme je suis
Je suis faite comme ça
Quand j’ai envie de rire
Oui je ris aux éclats
Jacques Prévert, Paroles
Agnès Varda: A Director ‘au féminin singulier’
The year is 1962 and Paris is full of young people ready to enthuse about the political
and social changes afoot in Cuba. Among these young people are filmmakers Chris
Marker and Agnès Varda and writers Michel Leiris, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beau-
voir and Marguerite Duras. Many of these intellectuals collaborate with Cuban insti-
tutions such as the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).
Today some might frown at a film praising Castro’s dictatorship, but at the time, Cuba
is a fresh new cause. Salut les Cubains! (1964) is a distinctive political documentary,
mostly made of animated photographs that Agnès Varda took on a trip to Cuba in
December 1962 and January 1963. But while grounded in the ‘here and now’ of the
1960s in France and Cuba, it also features many of the traits found in Varda’s other
artistic projects. It is informed by its political and historical context and shaped by the
conditions in which it was made. With a simple camera (a Leica) and light portable
technology (the Nagra tape recorder and cameras seen in the film’s opening), Varda
resistance and eclecticism 1
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