She shot nearly 30 films in her lifetime, and amazingly, none of them sold well. She was never moved by business, insisted on low-cost creation, and insisted on observing things with her own unique vision. She pays attention to the individual, to women, to the most ordinary working people. Not limited to any art form, always curious about the world. She is Agnès Varda, who died at home on March 29, 2019, at the age of 91. He left behind his posthumous work [Agnès on Varda] and said during the filming: "It's time to say goodbye." ”
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At the end of the 1950s, a new generation of film creators emerged around the world, prompting a new wave of energetic and creative films. One of the most influential stocks is concentrated in France -
This is a group of young people who originally cursed mainstream cinema in film journals, represented by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Riviette, Claude Chabrol and others.
Later, they were no longer satisfied with the comments and began to make movies.
In 1959, Riviette made "Paris Belongs to Us", Godard made "Exhausted", Chabrol shot [Cousins], and Truffaut's [Four Hundred Blows] won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The media refers to this new force that subverts tradition as the "New Wave."
Who knows, before these stones were thrown into the long-dormant film pond and stirred up the waves, a female photographer named Agnès Varda had already targeted this group of people earlier.
©️ Agnès Varda in his youth
Agnès Varda was born in Belgium in 1928 to a French mother and a father from a Greek refugee family.
Logically, she also belongs to the New Wave generation, who was born before World War II and grew up in the post-war recovery period. But before the age of 25, Varda only studied literature and psychology in Paris, and after a short period of time, he studied photography and became a photographer.
At the 1948 Avignon Theatre and Music Festival, she picked up her camera and took the first photo of her career, but unfortunately it was mushy and could not be seen clearly.
©️In 1948, Varda participated in the Avignon Drama and Music Festival at the age of 20
Then one day, she felt the need to give her creations language, "If you add text to pictures, won't they become movies?" With such naïve ideas, she broke into the film industry.
In 1954, Varda made his first short film [Short Corner Affair], which is strictly a drama film, a couple facing an emotional crisis, who come to the man's hometown, a small fishing village, hanging out, sleeping, and discussing the pursuit of life all the time.
Thankfully there is no "paste". The film's cinematography and advanced narrative technique coincide with the "French New Wave" four years later.
Before filming [Short Angle Affair], Varda (top left) had only seen a dozen films, but invented a classic composition (bottom left) with a side face overlapping with a front face, which is still repeated in new movie poster productions around the world.
Varda was short, and when sitting in a chair, his feet often fell out of reach. During the filming of the "Short Corner Affair", although she had already padded a box, she still needed to step on a person's back (right photo) to operate
She had read Faulkner's Wild Palms, a novel in which two stories alternated between two stories in the same book, creating a strong space-time interaction effect. She was so happy with this structure that she applied it to the script of her debut novel ,Short Horn Affair.
Before a script can become a movie, you have to meet people in the film industry.
Soon, Varda and Arun Renai became close friends and used all their savings to set up an independent production company.
As an editor of "Short-Horned Affair", Arun Renai was also deeply influenced by Varda, and whether it was "Night and Fog" or "Hiroshima Love", which made him famous later, there are shadows of the narrative method of "Short-horned Love Affair".
The structure of two stories or two alternating time and space, the jumping editing, the literary dialogue, these unique cinematic languages later developed into several labels of New Wave cinema, and Varda and Arun Renai also formed the Left Bank faction of this trend.
©️ From left to right: Arun Renai, Agnès Varda, Jacques Demi
Godard's [exhaustion] on the other hand brought the New Wave to its climax, and he got the opportunity to recommend talent to producers, so he introduced his good friend Jacques Demi, who further recommended his girlfriend Agnès Varda to Godard's producer.
In this way, Varda took advantage of the momentum of the New Wave to shoot [Cleo at five to seven o'clock], which appeared at the Cannes Film Festival that year.
©️ [Cleo at five to seven] CC cover, the left picture is Varda, the right picture is the heroine Corinne Marchand
The form of two-line interaction is still continued, but due to cost, the idea of shooting in two places was dismissed, and it was decided to simply shoot what happened in one day in the same city, and even the number of times to change clothes could be controlled.
As the second film of Varda's life, [Cleo at Five to Seven] expresses fear, or rather, fear for women.
The French call five to seven o'clock in the evening "lover's time", but for Cleo, an ordinary Tuesday from five to seven o'clock in the evening has nothing to do with the wind and moon, only the torment, and it is as long as a lifetime.
The singer may have cancer, and she was waiting for a diagnosis, but from the tarot cards, she had seen herself dying.
When a person finds that his life is running out, he will subconsciously be extremely sensitive to everything that is happening around him. The crowds are bustling, a young couple is arguing over something big about sesame, the radio is broadcasting the news of the Algerian war...
Cleo wanders the streets, looking anxious and frightened, talking to a wide variety of people, just to escape a medical report.
©️ [Cleo at five to seven], Cleo stared at herself in the mirror, still delicate and beautiful, but the torment of reality made her eyebrows soaked
In Varda herself, the city of Paris terrified her, she came here with her family during World War II, and the gray, indifferent and sad tones of the city left a shadow on her. And what is shown in the movie is the biggest fear of the moment - cancer.
Although the title of the film is "Cleo at 5-7", the film ends at 6:30. Agnès Varda was mischievous and said that 90 minutes was just right, she didn't want to shoot two hours, so who wanted to watch it?
Having only made a feature film, he dared to be such a wayward director, if he could control his own actions, it would be difficult to become famous.
Varda caught up with the good times, the French New Wave of the 60s was at its peak, and "Do Whatever You Want" was the best ticket for a filmmaker. Coupled with her experience as a photographer, it has been proved that she is naturally sensitive to light and shadow composition.
The new wave advocates real-life shooting, sports shots, and natural light sources, and she is familiar with it. So whether Varda meets the New Wave or the New Wave meets Varda, it is inevitable by chance.
©️ On the set of [Cleo at five to seven], Varda showed a different kind of vividness and liveliness
At that time, between Truffaut and Godard, Varda was undoubtedly the most dazzling rose, known as the "Old Grandmother of the New Wave". It was a big enough name that she herself enjoyed it, and whenever someone called her "Mother of the New Wave," she had to correct it, "It's the old grandmother." ”
Indeed, from the timeline, Varda got up early enough.
While the young people who worked in the film were still cursing and grinning, she had already made what would become known as the author's film. But because she doesn't like to shout slogans for movies and put on an overly serious attitude, people rarely see her name in the introduction of the French New Wave.
Apparently, the New Wave didn't really embrace her.
Just like in her 2017 documentary [Face, Village], her old friend Godard gave her a closed-door soup, the old lady was so aggrieved that she cried, but still turned around and came back to put Godard's favorite bread.
Well, compared to the "young people" who flew in the new wave, she did lose her temper a little, and the impression left was always unusually soft.
From young to old, she kept a non-aggressive mushroom head, the color changed from one to two, and when asked why, she said, "I don't want to be as white as the dog in front of me, I like color." ”
[Face, Village], she and JR drive past a sunflower field, and the sun shines brightly, like her brilliant colors.
She gives people a brisk feeling with her jumping steps, from a young person jumping blindly, to two people bouncing together, to the Oscar awards ceremony, still without hesitation.
©️ Agnès Varda, who had been fooling around all his life
Her smile is soft, even in the face of pain, in the face of ridicule, in the face of the passage of time.
She put all these personal colors into those films that almost restored reality, and completed the film writing of her life.
From the beginning of the shooting of [Short Angle Affair], she named this way of creation "film writing", believing that film should be as free as writing, and the creator should be responsible for all the elements of the film, including the theme, photography, editing, poster, and soundtrack.
Surrounded by professional and fanatical filmmakers such as Truffaut, Godard, and Houmai, she seems to be "unlearned and unskilled." When Varda realized this, her life was already immersed in the world of cinema.
Looking back at her films, we can see what really happened in an era, and we can see the attitude of a female director beyond gender.
And in [Happiness], she seems to be standing with women.
[Happiness] tells the story of a man who wanders between two women, his wife and his lover, and one day his wife dies, and the lover takes his wife's place, and the life of the family is as vivid as ever.
The film stimulated many people and was once mired in controversy. Varda, on the other hand, only cares about whether the film embodies happiness under the laws of nature.
©️ [Happiness] is known as the French version of "Red Rose and White Rose", and as a female Varda, through the male perspective, tells the story of falling in love with two women at the same time
She has also fought for the legalization of female abortion, and she is still angry that female directors blame gender for not making a movie, she said: "Or go home early and cook." ”
In 1990, Varda's husband, Jacques Demi, died, ending a 39-year relationship. The following year, Varda filmed [Jacques Demi of Nantes] as a love and remembrance of him.
She missed him all the time.
In [Face, Village], she read her husband's name in Godard's code, and all optimism and smile collapsed in that moment. She turned to the camera and threw a message at Godard, "You're such a big badass."
©️ On set, Varda held her husband's hand
Love, fear, sadness, and back to love, Agnès Varda in the film is consistent. Her softness, smile, naughtiness and feminine care slowly flowed out on the film and intertwined into a long life.
Thank you Agnès Varda.