Interesting and Amazing Fun Facts about Agnès Varda

Google Doodle honors Agnès Varda, a French photographer, filmmaker, and artist who was born in Belgium and is regarded as a trailblazer of the French New Wave movement. Agnes Varda, a French film director, photographer, and artist who was born in Belgium is honored in today’s Doodle. She is largely credited with starting the New Wave film movement. She received an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Academy on this day in 2014 in recognition of her contributions. Here are some interesting and amazing fun facts about Agnès Varda.

Who was Agnès Varda?

French photographer and filmmaker Agnès Varda, whose debut picture La Pointe Courte (1954), served as a model for the French New Wave motion pictures of the 1960s.

Quick Look

Personal

• Birth name: Arlette Varda
• Birth date: 30 May 1928
• Birthplace: Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
• Died on: 29 March 2019 (aged 90)
• Death place: Paris, France
• Famous as: Director, screenwriter, editor, actor, producer, installation artist, photographer
• Years active: 1951–2019
• Notable work:
  • La Pointe Courte (1955)
  • Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
  • Vagabond (1985)
  • The Gleaners and I (2000)
  • Faces Places (2017)
• Spouse: Jacques Demy (m. 1962; died 1990)​
• Children:
  • Rosalie Varda
  • Mathieu Demy

40 Interesting Facts about Agnès Varda

1. Agnès Varda studied at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne before pursuing a photography career. During her tenure as the Théatre National Populaire’s official photographer from 1951 to 1961, she developed a passion for cinema and theater.
2. La Pointe Courte, Agnès Varda’s debut feature, established her as a unique artist. The drama, which has a distinct visual aesthetic and a documentary-like atmosphere, switches between two stories: that of a fishing village dealing with its problems collectively, and that of a young couple examining their problematic marriage.
3. The influence of the New Wave can be seen in Varda’s second feature, Cleo de cinq à sept (1961; Cleo from 5 to 7), an intellectual and introspective film. This is an intimate story about a pop singer who, while awaiting the results of a medical examination that will determine whether or not she has a terminal illness, develops new eyesight for the world around her. Director Jacques Demy and Varda were wed in 1962 and remained together until he died in 1990.
4. Le Bonheur (Happiness), Varda’s most contentious film, was an abstract depiction of fidelity and happiness that she directed in 1964. Her most well-known movies over the next twenty years were L’Une chante, l’autre pas (1977; One Sings, the Other Doesn’t) and Sans toit ni loi (1985; Without Roof or Law, or Vagabond), following the release of Les Creatures (The Creatures) in 1966.
5. Varda continued to direct well into the new millennium and the 1990s. Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995), which tells the story of an elderly man who loves movies, and Jacquot de Nantes (1991), which is based on Demy’s childhood, were two of her most well-known films from this era.
6. Several of her later roles were in documentaries, including Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000; The Gleaners and I), which offered an intimate glimpse into French rural life; Les Plages d’Agnès (2008; The Beaches of Agnès), which told the story of her life; and the Visages villages (2017; Faces Places), which was nominated for an Academy Award and starred Varda and artist JR.
7. Agnès Varda’s groundbreaking work was essential to the growth of the French New Wave film movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which had a significant impact on the world.
8. Her films aimed to achieve a unique experimental style while tackling social commentary, women’s issues, and documentary realism.
9. Varda’s work used location shooting during a time when sound technology was still in its infancy, making it easier and more common to film indoors instead of outdoors, using built sets and painted landscape backdrops.
10. Her choice of amateur actors was also unorthodox for a French film in the 1950s. La Pointe Courte (1955) marked Varda’s feature film debut. She then went on to star in two of her most well-known narrative films, Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985), and Kung Fu Master (1988).
11. In addition, Agnès Varda was well-known for her work as a documentarian. Her documentaries include Faces Places (2017), The Beaches of Agnès (2008), Black Panthers (1968), and Varda by Agnès (2019), which was her last project.
12. Varda was referred to by director Martin Scorsese as “one of the Gods of Cinema”. Varda has won several other honors, including an Honorary Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where she became the first woman to win the prize; a Golden Lion for Vagabond at the 1985 Venice Film Festival; an Academy Honorary Award; and the distinction of being the oldest person to be nominated for an Academy Award in the competitive category for Best Documentary Feature, for Faces Places. She won an honorary Oscar in 2017 and became the first female director to do so.
13. On May 30, 1928, in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium, Christiane (née Pasquet) and engineer Eugène Jean Varda welcomed Arlette Varda into the world. Her father was a Greek immigrant from Asia Minor, and her mother was from Sète, France. Out of five children, she was the third. At the age of 18, Varda legally changed her first name to Agnès.
14. Agnès Varda and her family left Belgium in 1940 and moved to Sète, where she lived as a teenager and on a boat with her family during World War II.
15. Varda completed her studies in photography at the École des Beaux-Arts and art history at the École du Louvre before beginning her career as a photographer at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris.
16. Varda studied at the Lycée et collège Victor-Duruy and graduated from the Sorbonne with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and literature. Her move to Paris was described by her as “truly excruciating”.
17. Agnès Varda attended the École du Louvre to study art history to become a museum curator, but she ultimately chose to attend the Vaugirard School of Photography to pursue her photography studies. Before emerging as a key figure in the French New Wave and Left Bank Cinema, she worked as a still photographer.
18. Varda was appointed official photographer of the Théâtre National Populaire in 1951 upon the opening of the venue by her friend Jean Vilar. She was a stage photographer for the Theatre Festival of Avignon before taking the job there.
19. From 1951 to 1961, she spent ten years working at the Théâtre National Populaire. During this time, her reputation grew, and she eventually got hired as a photojournalist all over Europe.
20. Agnès Varda joined the Nathalie Obadia Gallery in 2010.
21. Although Varda’s filmography predates the French New Wave, it nevertheless incorporates a lot of its distinctive elements.: 3 Varda, a photographer by trade, confessed that she knew very little about filmmaking and had only seen about 20 films by the time she was 25. Nevertheless, she developed an interest in creating her own film.
22. To have more control over filming and editing, Varda established Ciné-Tamaris, her own production company, in 1977. Agnès Varda in California land, Varda’s first American exhibition, took place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2013. Inspired by her time spent in Los Angeles in the 1960s, it included a sculpture installation, multiple photos, and short films.
23. The film Jacquot de Nantes, which Agnès Varda made about her husband Jacques Demy’s life and death, was released in 1991, not long after his passing. Although Varda’s recurring theme of accepting death is explored throughout the movie, its true purpose is to honor Varda’s late husband and their collaborative efforts.
24. Agnès Varda and artist JR co-directed Faces Places in 2017. The film won the L’Œil d’or award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened outside of competition. Varda and JR are shown in the movie traveling through rural France and taking pictures of the people they meet. With this movie, Varda received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, becoming the oldest person to receive a nomination for a competitive Oscar.
25. Varda watches and talks about her films and works in Agnes’s last film, Varda by Varda. She talks about her six decades of artistic development through film and photography. She highlights the significance of three essential terms: sharing, inspiration, and creation. In the movie, Varda is shown sitting and thinking about her favorite things—her husband, her cats, beaches, colors, and potatoes in the shape of hearts.
26. A large number of Agnès Varda’s documentarian films feature protagonists who are outcasts or rejected by society. Upon learning that the Black Panthers’ leader, Huey Newton, had been taken into custody for the murder of a police officer, she decided to make a short film about them. The main focus of the movie is on protests in favor of Newton and the “Free Huey” movement.
27. Because Varda created a female cinematic voice and used female protagonists, her work is frequently regarded as feminist. She taught film at The European Graduate School as well.
28. It was at a 1958 Tours short film festival that Varda met her future husband, French director Jacques Demy. In 1959, they moved in together. Demy and she were wed from 1962 until his passing in 1990. Varda had two children: a son, Mathieu Demy (born 1972), with Demy, and a daughter, Rosalie Varda (born 1958), from a previous marriage to actor Antoine Bourseiller (who starred in Cléo from 5 to 7). Rosalie Varda was lawfully adopted by Demy. Working with her daughter, Varda produced the Oscar-nominated documentary Faces Places.
29. At the age of 90, Agnès Varda passed away in Paris on March 29, 2019, due to cancer.
30. In 1983, Varda served on the Venice Film Festival jury. She also served on the Cannes Film Festival jury in 2005. She received the René Clair Award, the French Academy’s highest honor, in 2002.
31. She was made a Grand Officer of the French National Order of Merit on March 4, 2007. She was appointed Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur on April 12, 2009.
32. Agnès Varda won the 8th Carosse d’Or for lifetime achievement in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May. Varda was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Liège in Belgium on September 22, 2010.
33. Varda won the Leopard of Honour at the 67th Locarno Film Festival on August 10, 2014. After Kira Muratova, she was the second female recipient of the honor. Varda was given the honorary Lifetime Achievement Award by the European Film Academy on December 13, 2014.
34. Agnès Varda was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or on May 24, 2015. The first female recipient of an honorary Palme d’Or was her. Varda received a promotion to Grand officier de la Légion d’honneur on April 16, 2017. Varda was listed among the “Unforgettables” of 2017 by Cinema Eye.
35. Varda became the first female director to be honored with an Academy Honorary Award on November 11, 2017, in recognition of her contributions to the film industry. At the 9th Annual Governors Awards ceremony, the prize was given out.
36. After two months, Agnès Varda received a nomination for her documentary Faces Places for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making her the oldest nominee of the night (she was eight days older than James Ivory, who was also nominated).
37. She won the Golden Lion at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival for the 1985 feature film Vagabond, which was fashioned after a documentary. The Beaches of Agnès took home the 34th César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2009.
38. Agnès Varda was the first female director to win an honorary Oscar, and at the time of her passing, she was the oldest nominee for an Academy Honorary Award. It was during the Governors Awards in 2017 that Angelina Jolie gave her the Honorary Academy Award.
39. To determine the top 100 films directed by women in 2019, the BBC surveyed 368 film experts from 84 different countries. With six different films on the list—The Beaches of Agnès, One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, The Gleaners and I, Le Bonheur, Vagabond, and the number-two spot on the list, Cléo from 5 to 7—Varda was the most well-known director.
40. Agnès Varda was honored with a Google Doodle on December 13, 2023.