Films We Like presents VARDA BY AGNÈS

A film by Agnès Varda 

Canadian Premiere at TIFF 2019 in Special Events

Friday, September 6, 2019 – 11:30am – TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

 For Immediate Release - Tuesday, August 20, 2019

 
“I have a good time aging. I love the wrinkles, the hands… and I love to see things getting to be naturally, vaguely destroyed.” – Agnès Varda

With Varda by Agnes, the “Queen of French Cinema” returns to TIFF with a new documentary following her Academy Award nominated sensation Faces Places.

Agnes Varda’s larger than life presence will grace TIFF no more, but her final film is a fitting closure for her loyal audiences, and a portal for newcomers to her prodigious career.

An unpredictable documentary from a fascinating storyteller, Varda by Agnès sheds light on her experience as a director, bringing a personal insight to what she calls “cine-writing”.

 

Synopsis

Agnès Varda takes a seat on-stage at a French opera house. This professional photographer, installation artist and pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague is an institution of French cinema but a fierce opponent of any kind of institutional thinking.

In this film, Varda offers insights into her oeuvre, using excerpts from her work to illustrate her artistic visions and ideas. Her lively, anecdote-rich and clever talk is divided into two sections.  Firstly, she elucidates her ‘analogue period’ from 1954 to 2000, in which the director is in the foreground. This was the young woman who set out to reinvent cinema, someone who was always open to chance and to moments of documentary, even in fiction; who, with every new film, changed her narrative style. In the second part, Agnès Varda focuses on the years from 2000 to 2018, and shows how she uses digital technology to look at the world in her own, unique way. And started a new life as a visual artist, showing pieces that film goers have never seen.

Whether in front of the camera or behind it,Agnès Varda is a visual storyteller who eschews convention and prescribed approaches to drama. Together with some of her fellow travelers, she takes the audience on a journey through her world of unorthodox images.

Director’s statement:

In 1994, with a retro at the French Cinémathèque, I published a book entitled VARDA BY AGNÈS. 25 years later, the same title is given to my film made of moving images and words, with the same project: give keys about my body of work. I give my own keys, my thoughts, nothing pretentious, just keys.

Running time:  115 minutes
France, 2019
French with English subtitles
For hi-res photos, press notes:  www.filmswelike.com/varda-by-agnes

TIFF SCREENINGS:

Press & Industry:  Thursday, September 5, 12:15pm, Scotiabank 4
Public 1:  Friday, September 6, 11:30am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Media Contact:
Virginia Kelly
V Kelly & Associates
info@vkpr.ca