Varda: A Retrospective
In 1955, Agnès Varda kickstarted the French New Wave with her debut feature La Pointe Courte, and for the next six decades she remained at the cutting edge of international cinema, continuing to innovate, experiment, and explore right up until her death earlier this year at age 90. An eternal free spirit, Varda used the camera as an extension of herself, synthesizing the things that captured her restless imagination—the worlds of outcasts and outsiders, the California counterculture and the feminist movement, beaches and heart-shaped potatoes—into a singular style that she called “cinécriture” (“cinematic writing”). Moving between narrative and documentary (and hybrids of the two), film and video, photography and installation works, she remained, at each step of her career, inimitably herself: playful, probing, empathetic, wise, and inexhaustibly curious about the world whirling around her. Film at Lincoln Center is honored to present a comprehensive, career-spanning retrospective of the luminous filmmaker’s vast canon.
Highlights include New Wave treasures Cléo from 5 to 7 and Le bonheur; Varda’s inquiries into those on society’s outskirts in Vagabond (NYFF23), The Gleaners and I (NYFF38), and the 2017 Oscar nominee Faces Places (NYFF55); nonfiction portraits of activism in Black Panthers and Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex; and free screenings of the five-part miniseries Agnès Varda: From Here to There, which features Varda visiting filmmaker friends around the world including Carlos Reygadas, Alexander Sokurov, and Manoel de Oliveira. Varda’s daughter and producing partner, Rosalie Varda, will join audiences in person for select screenings.
Organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson in partnership with Janus Films.
Take home a piece of the retrospective at our merch store, featuring Varda totes, pins, and more! Also available at the EBM box office.
The Beaches of Agnès
Introductions by Annette Insdorf on Dec. 29 and Rosalie Varda on Jan. 5
A poignant work of cinematic memoir, The Beaches of Agnès travels back through Varda’s remarkable life, and like water on the shore, encapsulates the ephemerality of time and memory.Le bonheur
Introduction by Rosalie Varda on January 4
A carpenter tests the limits of his Edenic domestic bliss in Varda’s barbed masterpiece of infidelity, which exemplifies the filmmaker at her boldest.Cinévardaphoto
Cléo from 5 to 7
Daguerréotypes
Documenteur
Faces Places
The Gleaners and I
The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later
Jacquot de Nantes
Jane B. Par Agnès V.
Kung-Fu Master!
Introduction by Rosalie Varda on January 6
Jane Birkin (who also conceived the story) gives one of her finest performances in Varda’s one-of-a-kind romance. She plays a 40-year-old divorcée who falls in love with her daughter’s 14-year-old classmate—an eyebrow-raising premise that’s treated with surprising tenderness.Lions Love (… and Lies)
Mur Murs
One Hundred and One Nights
Q&A with Rosalie Varda on January 6
In this whimsical film historical revue, Varda assembles a troupe of beloved film icons to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Lumière Brothers’ earliest projections.One Sings, the Other Doesn’t
On January 4, screening with Varda's short Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex and Q&A with Rosalie Varda
Varda’s feminist musical—with lyrics by the director—concerns the bond of sisterhood felt by Pomme (Valérie Mairesse) and Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard) throughout years of changes and fraught relationships with men. Opening Night of NYFF15.La Pointe Courte
Vagabond
Introduction by Rosalie Varda on January 5
The heroine of one of Varda’s most celebrated features, played in a career-high performance by Sandrine Bonnaire, is a strong-willed young woman for whom freedom is its own costly end.Varda by Agnès
The New York Times Critic's Pick
In her final work, partially constructed of onstage interviews and lectures, interspersed with a wealth of clips and archival footage, Agnès Varda guides us through her career, from her movies to her remarkable still photography to the delightful and creative installation work. An NYFF57 selection.The World of Jacques Demy
The Young Girls Turn 25
Varda Shorts Program 1: 1958
Varda Shorts Program 2: 1961–1968
Varda Shorts Program 3: 1975–2003
Varda Shorts Program 4: Selected by Rosalie Varda
Introduction by Rosalie Varda
This program combines four shorts selected and to be presented in person by Varda’s producer and daughter, Rosalie Varda, including Diary of a Pregnant Woman, Black Panthers, Uncle Yanco, and Women Reply, Our Bodies, Our Sex.Free Screenings & Events
Agnès Varda: From Here to There
Free and open to the public!
In this vibrant five-part miniseries, Varda travels around the globe for a freewheeling assemblage of people, places, art, and happenings. Each of these deceptively off-the-cuff encounters speaks to Varda’s keen fascination with life’s surprises, questions, and possibilities.Film Comment Talk: Varda by Filmmakers
Free and open to the public! · Presented by HBO
To celebrate the final weekend of our Varda retrospective, we present a conversation with another generation of filmmakers about what Varda has meant to them and the key movies from her oeuvre that influenced them.Free Loop: Agnès Varda Q&As at Film at Lincoln Center
Free and open to the public!
During our Agnès Varda retrospective, taking place December 20-January 6, stop by the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater for a free loop of our Agnès Varda Q&As throughout the last decade. The career-spanning conversations touch on her work in narrative…
Agnès Varda Gallery Exhibition
Free and open to the public!
Highlights include a pop-up installation showcasing pivotal themes, moments, and the progression of Agnès Varda's work; rare behind-the-scenes photos; archival film trailers and exclusive interviews; an interactive photo space; and more.Tickets are now on sale! To begin the purchase process, log in to your account. Don’t have an account? Sign up for one today. To see member and patron pricing, you must be logged into your account.
3+ Film Package – Tickets just $9 Members / $10 Students, Seniors, and Persons with Disabilities / $13 General Public.
All-Access Package – See everything in the series for $150!
Note: Varda by Agnès is not included in discount packages. Film at Lincoln Center Members at eligible levels can redeem their complimentary ticket vouchers for this series in person at the box office. Patrons can reserve in advance by emailing [email protected].
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