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.

In the supplemental materials Martin Scorsese tells a story of being mildly intimidated by the presence of Agnès Varda who was visiting his film set. He was asked to tell which of her films was his favourite, and he stammered out Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962). Varda lightly chided him, saying that’s what everyone says. She has a point too: when she passed in 2019 anyone reflecting on her importance as a filmmaker typically cited Cléo as the film to watch. I have always regarded the film at a respectful distance, but upon a third viewing and with a lot of reading up, I’m ready to call this a film I enjoy.

Continue reading “Varda by Jon – Part 3: Around Paris”