Agnès Varda left us forever because of cancer.
Over the years, more and more female directors have emerged around the world, but if you want to choose one of the greatest female directors in the history of cinema, this person is probably only Varda.
Latecomers may make one amazing masterpiece after another, but it is difficult to surpass Varda for the film and the filmmaker's influence.
Many people may not have seen Varda's films much, but they have heard her resounding name. The aura of the "Godmother of the New Wave" is so dazzling that even Godard, the leader of the New Wave, has to be humble in front of Varda.
The first masterpiece of the New Wave
Varda was born in 1928 and died just over 90 years old. Her work began in the 1950s, 1954's Short Horn Affair, to be precise.
The director who started working earlier than her and is still alive probably doesn't have any today.
In 1954, 6 years before Godard made Exhausted, 5 years before Rue Rueffer played "Four Hundred Blows", and 3 years before Claude Chabrol completed Pretty Sergi. In the minds of many people, these films are the prologue to the greatest movement in the history of cinema, the French New Wave.
But the truth is, this prologue should begin with Varda's The Affair of the Short Horn.
Not just because it appeared earlier, but because of the new cinematic aesthetic it brought.
This short film, somewhere between a documentary and a feature film, is half documentary and half literary love dialogue, to be precise. It's a film written in the same way that William Faulkner wrote.
There is no story in the traditional sense, no cause and effect. It focuses on reality and focuses on the psychological state of the characters.
The film inspired "manual" directors such as Godard and Aaron Renai, and from then on, the New Wave masters carried the cameras to the streets, played jumping, and abandoned the traditional narrative in poetic language, thus opening up a new film aesthetic.
French film historian Georges Sadur also gave his definition directly - "The Short Corner" is the first masterpiece of the New Wave.
Favorite Jacques Demi
Because of the New Wave, she met Godard, who became her lifelong friend. Also because of the New Wave, she met the most important person in her life, her husband Jacques Demi. Both men are well known as New Wave "Left Bank" directors.
In the 1960s, when New Wave's most reputable was, Demi's prestige was significantly higher than that of Varda. "Lola", "Cherbourg's Umbrella", "Willow Flower" and other works have attracted a lot of admiration.
But in the next 20 years, Varda's creations were much more alive than Demi's. Demi's films after the 70s have mostly been forgotten, and Varda's creation has only just begun at this time.
Varda's series of important works, such as "One Image in a Minute" and "The Fallen Woman at the End of the World", were completed in the 88s and 90s, and even after the new century, "The Gleaner", "The Beach of Agnès", "Face, Village" and other works with many new ideas in form.
You know, during this period, most of the New Wave cadres have either passed away or their creative banners have stopped. But the older Varda still looks so young and vibrant.
But for Varda, her most important and beloved work is destined to be her "Jacques Demi Trilogy".
Demi fell ill with AIDS in his later years and became increasingly weak. Varda then uses the camera to record Demy's childhood moments, interspersed with Demi's later years. This is Jacques Demi of Nantes.
The film also links Demi's life to his creations, and in Demi's numerous film clips, we see the moments that originated from his life.
This is undoubtedly a love letter from Varda to her husband, and it is also a precious gift he has given to fans, and it is the best window for us to know and understand Jacques Demi.
Later, after Demi's death, Varda filmed "The L.A. Girl Was Twenty-Five" and "Jacques Demi's World". The former recalls the scene when Demi filmed "Willow Beauty", and the latter reviews Demi's creation from the perspective of film history, which is another precious film historical material.
Such a creation for lovers is rare in the world. The affection between Varda and Demi has also become a beautiful talk repeatedly sung by fans.
Documentary creation approaching performance art
Varda made a large number of documentaries in her life, especially in her later years, and her documentaries became more and more innovative in form, always surprising people.
Inspired by the painter Miller's painting of the same name, Gleaner focuses on French scavengers. Those living at the bottom pick up discarded garbage to make ends meet, but in the eyes of artists, that garbage becomes the raw material of art.
Varda divides scavengers into three broad categories: "Some people scavenging because they are forced by life, some scavenging because they are artists, and some scavenging because they like to scavenge." ”
The full title of the film is "Scavengers and Female Scavengers", and the "female scavengers" refers to Varda herself. It's just that what she picks up is a forgotten memory as an element of her own film.
In the film, she discovers a heart-shaped potato, and inspired by this, she begins to play with a series of installations and performance art with potatoes.
She moved 700 kilograms of potatoes to the exhibition hall and took good care of the growth and germination of each potato. She even dressed herself as a potato and walked around the exhibition hall. Even when she's away, she puts a card with her profile picture on the potatoes.
At the age of 80, she made a film of "The Beach of Agnès" as her birthday present.
On Varda's favorite beach, she is filled with mirrors, large and small, mirrors that reflect each other, creating a scene that is both real and illusory.
In such a situation, she constructed a fairytale stage. Sometimes the crew dressed up as ancient Roman soldiers, sometimes driving a car made of cards, sometimes burrowing into the belly of a huge whale, sometimes pulling open the curtain made of fishing nets.
These props, which are not real, confirm the truth of her memory. She recounts her past and memories as if she were playing a childlike jigsaw puzzle with the audience. What she wanted to piece together with all the memories was herself.
In her last book, Faces, Villages, she and street artist JR went looking for the faces of ordinary people and imprinted their faces on huge houses and buildings.
Those huge portraits, plain and intimate, may be the installation visual art closest to ordinary people.
In the end she also took us to find Godard, but was released with pigeons.
These works by Varda, and the real her off-screen —always topped with a mushroom head and dressed in a colorful dress — don't make it feel like she's aging. On the contrary, she appears to be far younger than the average person.
Those novel and even somewhat eccentric ideas constantly burst out of her head, giving the documentary new form and possibility.
Watching a movie like Face, Village, it's hard to believe she's 90 years old.
But no one knew her body better than she did. Perhaps gradually realizing that the disease was eroding her health, she began to consciously slow down and say goodbye to us.
Her last work, Agnès on Varda, is a self-interpretation of her life's work and a systematic and comprehensive review.
Like those documentaries she made for Jacques Demi, it's hard to see a director who would make such a thoughtful documentary for his life. For anyone who loves and wants to study Varda, this is undoubtedly the best first-hand material.
She must have been aware of her departure to leave such a gift.
"Agnès on Varda" premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and is now being screened at the Hong Kong Film Festival, and a few people have already seen it. At the Shanghai Film Festival in June this year, it will also be screened for the first time in the mainland, and more people will have the opportunity to meet it.
In the dimension of cinema, Varda is always in our memory. In the dimension of life, she just followed the person she loved the most.
Goodbye, Agnès.