VARDA SUMMER 2025
You guys remember when I watched all the Hitchcock films in that box set almost two years ago? I tried doing something similar for a second last fall with Universal Monster films but gave up on that pretty quickly. Well, with moving to a new state with my partner, I thought it would be fun to do this as a joint activity and delve into the magic of Criterion's Varda boxset. Over the summer, we'll be watching every film and short included in the order presented to understand her filmography from top to bottom. As such, we begin with the first film in the program which incidentally is her final one. Watching this hit a little less than it might have had I entered into this endeavor blindly. Earlier this year, we watched The Beaches of Agnes (funnily enough the last film in the order) which structurally and even content-wise is identical to this coda to Varda's decades-long career. Both are ostensibly overviews from Agnes as she comments on each of her projects, what inspired her to make them, and what they mean to her. While Beaches is a more complete standalone feature with tangents dedicated to her collaborators and art projects, Varda by Agnes is a much more straightforward affair. It's two hours of essentially director's commentary, largely pulled from one or two talks she gave to students and the public. It's hard for me not to feel the retread in this but for someone encountering her work for the first time, it's easy to see why Criterion would stick this on at the opening (even if it does spoil some of her stories). It's thorough but Varda's inimitable charm and infectious love of the medium makes this more appetizing than a two hour lecture might otherwise be. The Beaches of Agnes for me will always stand as the more complete portrait of her as an artist but as a final statement to the world there's something touching about just how complete her contributions to the art form feel from a bird's eye view.
VARDA SUMMER 2025
You guys remember when I watched all the Hitchcock films in that box set almost two years ago? I tried doing something similar for a second last fall with Universal Monster films but gave up on that pretty quickly. Well, with moving to a new state with my partner, I thought it would be fun to do this as a joint activity and delve into the magic of Criterion's Varda boxset. Over the summer, we'll be watching every film and short included in the order presented to understand her filmography from top to bottom. As such, we begin with the first film in the program which incidentally is her final one. Watching this hit a little less than it might have had I entered into this endeavor blindly. Earlier this year, we watched The Beaches of Agnes (funnily enough the last film in the order) which structurally and even content-wise is identical to this coda to Varda's decades-long career. Both are ostensibly overviews from Agnes as she comments on each of her projects, what inspired her to make them, and what they mean to her. While Beaches is a more complete standalone feature with tangents dedicated to her collaborators and art projects, Varda by Agnes is a much more straightforward affair. It's two hours of essentially director's commentary, largely pulled from one or two talks she gave to students and the public. It's hard for me not to feel the retread in this but for someone encountering her work for the first time, it's easy to see why Criterion would stick this on at the opening (even if it does spoil some of her stories). It's thorough but Varda's inimitable charm and infectious love of the medium makes this more appetizing than a two hour lecture might otherwise be. The Beaches of Agnes for me will always stand as the more complete portrait of her as an artist but as a final statement to the world there's something touching about just how complete her contributions to the art form feel from a bird's eye view.
