In the distant past of April 2020, Chris and I dove deep into an episode of our podcast Cinema Dual on the films of French filmmaker Agnès Varda. Though technically not my first experience with Varda, that week of watching Varda’s movies was eye-opening, to such an extent that when Criterion announced they were going to release a Blu Ray box set of her complete filmography, I jumped at the chance to catch up on everything I had missed. Each post will cover 1 of the 15 discs in the set.

If you were to read accounts of Agnes Varda’s 28-year marriage to fellow French filmmaker Jacques Demy, they generally read as fairly positive. They supported each other’s careers while maintaining healthy professional boundaries. When Demy was given the opportunity to travel to California to try his hand at Hollywood, he and Varda packed up the family and Varda found her own work to do in the meantime. It seems to be a modern partnership of equals that you’d want. But while both Demy and California will have their own forthcoming sections in this series, Varda’s thoughts on marriage generally as expressed through her art tend towards ambivalence at best. Like Varda’s philosopher colleague Simone de Beauvoir, we draw our attention to how traditionally women in heterosexual relationships were “shut up in a kitchen or in a boudoir, and astonishment is expressed that her horizon is limited. Her wings are clipped, and it is found deplorable that she cannot fly. Let but the future be opened to her, and she will no longer be compelled to linger in the present.”

Continue reading “Varda by Jon – Part 5: Married Life”