These three films from 1958 include Varda’s Along the Coast, a wryly existentialist riff on the travelogue; an impressionistic depiction of pregnancy, Diary of a Pregnant Woman; and a poetic, colorful chronicle of the castles of the Loire Valley, Ô saisons, ô châteaux

Along the Coast / Du côté de la côte
Agnès Varda, France, 1958, 25m
French with English subtitles
Varda trains her eye on beach vacationers and the resplendent summer colors of the south of France for this wryly existentialist riff on the travelogue, produced for the French Tourism Office.

Diary of a Pregnant Woman / L’opéra-mouffe
Agnès Varda, France, 1958, 16m
French with English subtitles
A playful anxiety arises in Varda’s impressionistic depiction of pregnancy, which free-associates between post-surrealist vignettes and the everyday hubbub of her Parisian neighborhood.

Ô saisons, ô châteaux
Agnès Varda, France, 1958, 20m
French with English subtitles
Varda coaxes French history into the present as she chronicles the castles of the Loire Valley, incorporating colorful choreography and 16th-century poetry. Film restored by Les Films de la Pléiade with the support of the CNC. 


Playing as part of Varda: A Retrospective, December 20-January 6. See showtimes & get tickets.