Agnès Varda between 2017 and 2019

Abstract

In 2017, Agnès Varda, French film director, was awarded an honorary Oscar, in addition to her documentary, Faces Places, being nominated for Best Documentary feature at the Academy Awards. She graced the cover of the Winter 2018 issue of The Gentlewoman, in addition to the cover of lifestyle magazine, PUSS PUSS, and had her first ever traveling retrospective in the UK in 2018. In Holly Brubach’s profile of Varda for The Gentlewoman, she states: “A familiar figure for decades on the indie circuit, Agnès has only recently ascended to a higher degree of fame” (Brubach 225). This thesis explores the possible reasons as to why, and how, Agnès Varda gained more attention at the end of her lifetime, between 2017 and 2019, up until her death in March 2019. This thesis focuses on the director’s three most recent documentaries: The Gleaners and I (2000), The Beaches of Agnès (2008), and Faces Places (2017). By closely analyzing the three films, with a firm approach in persona studies, this thesis explores how Varda has shaped her persona through her films, and how her films have shaped her persona. Coupling this approach with theories from feminist and film studies, these close analyses offer possible reasons as to why the filmmaker gained such attention between 2017 and 2019. This thesis close reads her documentaries in order to understand how Varda’s films have created her persona, and vice versa.