Celebrated Belgian-born filmmaker Agnes Varda has passed away at the age of 90, following a short battle with cancer. The pioneering Varda was a significant figure in the French New Wave scene, with a career as a director, writer, editor and producer that spanned upwards of 50 years.
Varda’s first film was 1955’s hugely influential La Pointe Courte, a low-budget relationship drama which she wrote and directed, set against the hardscrabble lives of a fishing town in the south of France. Her career continued with films including Cléo from 5 to 7, Vagabond, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Gleaners And I. Varda’s most recent UK release was critically-acclaimed documentary Faces Places, or Visages Villages, which arrived in September 2018. The film follows Varda and photographer JR as they venture through French towns and villages, creating community-focused art along the way. The film was Oscar-nominated, and won Most Popular International Documentary at the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2017, Varda was awarded an honorary Oscar at the age of 89 for her body of work.
Earlier this year, Varda debuted her final film – Varda by Agnes – at the Berlin Film Festival 2019, another documentary this time reflecting on her career as a filmmaker and artist, and bringing insights to her unique method of “cine-writing”. The film received positive reviews, with details of a UK release yet to come.
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