Agnès Varda Is Everywhere!
Agnès Varda keeps popping up in the most unexpected places. The indefatigable eighty-seven-year-old filmmaker stopped by our offices this week, along with her daughter, Rosalie, to say hello and fill us in on what she’s been up to. We’re happy to report that this legend of the French New Wave—and beyond—shows no signs of slowing down.
Varda was especially delighted to talk about a short film she had recently made for Women’s Tales, an online series produced by the Prada brand Miu Miu (other directors in the series include Lucrecia Martel, Ava DuVernay, Miranda July, and So Yong Kim). Varda’s magical contribution, Les 3 boutons (The 3 Buttons), which also showed at the Venice Film Festival in September, was shot in the village of Bonnieux, in southeastern France, as well as on rue Daguerre in Paris, where Varda has lived for half a century. A wry commentary on girlhood and fashion with a fairy-tale feel, the film traces the whimsical adventures of a country girl who receives a mysterious package. Varda excitedly told us about this lush production: “Given the budget, I was free to make whatever I wanted.” And she was especially tickled by the resources she was given for one particular shot, in which a button floats down a stream before disappearing beneath a sewer grate: “Can you imagine having a grip for an afternoon to shoot a button traveling in the water? I felt so blessed to have the money to do that, most of the time I don’t have money to do a third take!” Watch Les 3 boutons below.
Varda also discussed her next project, and it’s an exciting one. She is teaming up on a film with the French artist JR (pictured at top), who is well-known for his gigantic photographs of people, which he installs in public spaces—on the exterior walls of buildings and on outdoor stairways, for instance. (They are not unlike the murals Varda documented in Los Angeles for her 1981 film Mur murs.) After being invited to JR's studio, where she came face-to-face with a large photograph of herself that was taken in 1960, Varda knew immediately that she wanted to work with him. This past summer, the pair crowd-sourced funding for a film, now in preproduction, to be shot in Provence. Here’s an image from an installation in Havana, Cuba, of his amazing series The Wrinkles of the City.
As if that weren't enough, Varda told us that immediately after departing New York she would be on her way to the University of Chicago, where she will be an artist in residence during a week-long celebration of her work called CinéVardaExpo.Agnès Varda in Chicago,starting today. The event will include film screenings and exhibitions of her art, and Varda will give a public lecture on October 9.
We also had to share one last thing with you that Varda shared with us. Fashion designer Agnès B. has been commissioning posters from artists for years for a journal she publishes, called Le point d'ironie. For its fifty-seventh issue, Varda designed the cover, using an image of a mailman in Bonnieux, who is featured in Les 3 boutons, beside an enormous photo of him by JR. It’s Varda’s big world—we just dance in it.
