A Visit to "The Beaches of Agnes"

Agnes Varda doesn't appear to be a cinema titan at first glance. She looks like somebody's grandmother, which she is. She's also a lover of cats and knick-knacks and foreign cultures and heart-shaped potatoes. And beaches. She has many, many friends, some of them famous. And she constantly takes photographs of everything that interests her. And when we're very lucky, sometimes she makes films about them too. For her latest, and possibly her last film, Agnes Varda has taken an interest in her own eventful life and obligingly turns the camera on herself for "The Beaches of Agnes."

The result is a rare, wonderful autobiographical film - an autobiopic - tracing her personal and artistic development from her childhood in Belgium, to studying in Paris, to her participation in the vaunted New Wave of French cinema, to Cuba and China and Hollywood and beyond. Varda and her crew backtrack through her life, revisiting old friends and old haunts. The timeline of the film is more or less linear, with occasional digressions, but events are presented through a collage of impressions using several different techniques and devices. There are re-enactments, interviews, reunions, and various artistic representations of events and figures from her past. Agnes Varda mostly plays herself, though she recruits others to fill in for her younger selves. Her friend, fellow filmmaker Chris Marker, is represented by a large, orange, cartoon cat. When they reach the point in her life where Varda started making films, clips of them find their way into the mix too. She sets up a unique screening of her first film, "La Pointe Courte" while reacquainting herself with the locations and the actors that appeared in it. Images of the rebel heroine of "Vagabond" are intercut with Varda's own participation in the feminist movement.

I have a special fondness for films about artists and the artistic process, and it's so gratifying to see Agnes Varda not only examining herself and her work, but turning the act of examination into a distinct piece of art in and of itself. The opening scenes see her and a small army of volunteers setting out mirrors on the beach, who she introduces to us by filming images of their reflections, one by one. It's a fun bit of metaphor that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Varda is a sweet, warm, maternal presence, but also a tremendously inventive artist of great technical brilliance, who can still spring surprises on her audience. There's a segment late in the film where one of her beaches is invaded by bathers in a riot of brightly colored clothing, carrying plastic buckets and toys. The soundtrack becomes a series of cheerful inorganic pops and percussion sounds to match. It's such a quick series of shots, a transitional moment that didn't need to be there, and yet it perfectly captures Varda's playful artistic sensibilities. She finds inspiration anywhere and everywhere, as her pleasant narration attests.

For cinephiles, plenty of time is devoted to Varda's life with husband Jacques Demy, particularly their globetrotting adventures and later years together. Many of these scenes are poignant, as Demy passed in 1990 after a prolonged illness and Varda's thoughts and camera linger on the final images of him. Other famous names make cameos throughout. Jim Morrison drops in during their stay in Hollywood, there's a brief encounter with Fidel Castro in Cuba, and we even get a glimpse of a young Jean-Luc Godard in a rare moment without his shades. My favorite of these little portraits is a quick photo collage of Alexander Calder, who was a neighbor when Varda and Demy lived in Paris. As for Varda's own work, she discusses several of her celebrated films, spending the most time on "La Pointe Courte," but it's impossible to think of Agnes Varda simply as a film director after this. Her photographs and art installations are everywhere in "Beaches" and add immeasurably to the film, including a museum exhibit that she dons a potato costume to promote. She captures herself constantly in the act of creation, still taking pictures, telling stories, and making friends.

The film ends with Agnes Varda celebrating her eightieth birthday among family and friends, counting her blessings and her grandchildren. "The Beaches of Agnes" confirms that her star has lost none of its shine over the years. In a previous post I lamented being unable to connect with the self-centered heroine of Varda's most famous film, the New Wave classic "Cleo From 5 to 7," but I adore her later films, especially the documentaries like "The Gleaners and I." "Beaches" is happily more like "Gleaners," a documentary of the self with a far more charming heroine than the lovely Cleo. I sincerely hope this is not the last Agnes Varda film, since there's clearly a lot of life and art left in her. But if it must be, then it's a fitting finale to her amazing career.