Agnès Varda

Jacquot de Nantes

Jacquot de Nantes

Agnès Varda’s tender evocation of the childhood of her husband, Jacques Demy—a dream project that she realized for him when he became too ill to direct it himself—is a wonder-filled portrait of the artist as a young man and an enchanting ode to the magic of cinema. Shot in Demy’s hometown of Nantes (including the house he grew up in), this imaginative blend of narrative and documentary traces his coming of age as he finds escape from the tumult of World War II in puppet shows, fairy tales, opera, and, above all, movies—the formative aesthetic experiences that would fuel his vivid Technicolor imagination and find unforgettable expression in his exuberant New Wave masterworks. Interspersing intimate footage of the older Demy reflecting on his life’s journey, Jacquot de Nantes is a poignant love letter from one visionary artist to another.

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Film Info

  • France
  • 1991
  • 118 minutes
  • Black and White/Color
  • 1.66:1
  • French

Available In

Collector's Set

The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

Blu-ray Box Set

15 Discs

$199.96

Jacquot de Nantes
Cast
Philippe Maron
Jacquot 1
Édouard Joubeaud
Jacquot 2
Laurent Monnier
Jacquot 3
Brigitte De Villepoix
Mother
Daniel Dublet
Father
Credits
Director
Agnès Varda
Screenplay by
Agnès Varda
Screenplay by
Jacques Demy
Cinematography by
Patrick Blossier
Cinematography by
Agnès Godard
Cinematography by
Georges Strouvé
Sound
Jean-Pierre Duret
Sound
Nicolas Naegelen
Music by
Joanna Bruzdowicz
Set design by
Robert Nardone
Set design by
Olivier Radot
Costumes by
Françoise Disle
Edited by
Marie-Josée Audiard
Documentation by
Mireille Henrio
First assistant
Didier Rouget

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The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

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So unique and propulsive was Agnès Varda’s vision that she could be said to be her own ancestor and her own progeny.

By Alexandra Hidalgo

Essays — Aug 11, 2020

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Agnès Varda

Writer, Director

Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda

The only female director of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda has been called both the movement’s mother and its grandmother. The fact that some have felt the need to assign her a specifically feminine role, and the confusion over how to characterize that role, speak to just how unique her place in this hallowed cinematic movement—defined by such decidedly masculine artists as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut—is. Varda not only made films during the nouvelle vague, she helped inspire it. Her self-funded debut, the fiction-documentary hybrid 1956’s La Pointe Courte is often considered the unofficial first New Wave film; when she made it, she had no professional cinema training (her early work included painting, sculpting, and photojournalism). Though not widely seen, the film got her commissions to make several documentaries in the late fifties. In 1962, she released the seminal nouvelle vague film Cléo from 5 to 7; a bold character study that avoids psychologizing, it announced her official arrival. Over the coming decades, Varda became a force in art cinema, conceiving many of her films as political and feminist statements, and using a radical objectivity to create her unforgettable characters. She describes her style as cinécriture (writing on film), and it can be seen in formally audacious fictions like Le bonheur and Vagabond as well as more ragged and revealing autobiographical documentaries like The Gleaners and I and The Beaches of Agnès.

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