Agnès Varda : interviews
By: edited by T. Jefferson Kline
Contributors: Kline, T. Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson), 1942- editor
Series: Conversations with filmmakers series
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9781617039201
Subjects: Interviews; Women motion picture producers and directors
Description: Over nearly sixty years, Agnès Varda (b. 1928) has given interviews that are revealing not only of her work, but of her remarkably ambiguous status. She has been called the "Mother of the New Wave" but suffered for many years for never having been completely accepted by the cinematic establishment in France. Varda's first film, La Pointe Courte (1954), displayed many of the characteristics of the two later films that launched the New Wave, Truffaut's 400 Blows and Godard's Breathless. In a low-budget film, using (as yet) unknown actors and working entirely outside the prevailing studio system, Varda completely abandoned the "tradition of quality" that Truffaut was at that very time condemning in the pages of Cahiers du cinema. Her work, however, was not "discovered" until after Truffaut and Godard had broken onto the scene in 1959. Varda's next film, Cleo from 5 to 7, attracted considerably more attention and was selected as France's official entry for the Festival in Cannes. Ultimately, however, this film and her work for the next fifty years continued to be overshadowed by her more famous male friends, many of whom she mentored and advised. Her films have finally earned recognition as deeply probing and fundamental to the growing awareness in France of women's issues and the role of women in the cinema. "I'm not philosophical," she says, "not metaphysical. Feelings are the ground on which people can be led to think about things. I try to show everything that happens in such a way and ask questions so as to leave the viewers free to make their own judgments." The panoply of interviews here emphasize her core belief that "we never stop learning" and reveal the wealth of ways to answer her questions. --Amazon.com.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-208) and index.

Includes filmography.
Table of contents: title: Agnès Varda from 5 to 7 / Pierre Uytterhoeven (1962); title: Agnès Varda: the hour of truth / Michel Capdenac (1962); title: A secular grace: Agnès Varda / Jean-Andre Fieschi and Claude Ollier (1965); title: Interview with Agnès Varda / Hubert Arnault (1967); title: The underground river / Gordon Gow (1970); title: Lions love / Andre Cornand ( 1971); title: Mother of the new wave: an interview with Agnès Varda / Jacqueline Levitin (1974); title: Agnès Varda: a very worthy young woman / Mario Cloutier (1975); title: Agnès Varda talks about the cinema / Mireille Amiel (1975); title: L'une chante, l'autre pas: inteview with Agnès Varda / Jean Narboni, Serge Toubiana, and Dominique Villain (1977); title: Agnès Varda / Gerald Peary (1977); title: Sings, the other doesn't: an interview with Agnès Varda / Ruth McCormick (1978); title: Agnès Varda / Philippe Carcasonne and Jacques Fieschi (1981); title: Interview with Agnès Varda / Francoise Aude and Jean-Pierre Jeancolas (1982); title: Interview with Agnès Varda / Francoise Wera (1985); title: Agnès Varda: a conversation / Barbara Quart (1986); title: Interview with Varda on The vagabond (Jean Decock (1988); title: Agnès Varda: playing with tarot cards / Jean Darrigol (1994); title: The grandmother of the new wave / Carol Allen (1996); title: The modest gesture of the filmmaker: an interview with Agnès Varda / Melissa Anderson (2001); title: The gleaners and I by Agnès Varda / Julie Rigg (2005); title: Agnès Varda in Toronto / Gerald Peary (2008); title: The beaches of Agnès: an interview / David Warwick (2009); title: Gleaning the passion of Agnès Varda / Andrea Meyer (2009).