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Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” is and will always be cherished by cinephiles. After all, it beautifully captures their deep love for cinema and the art of filmmaking in the most heartfelt way. It shows a child from a small Italian town falling in love with cinema, because of his friendship with a local film projectionist. He gets to watch all kinds of movies and experiences the madness and chaos it entails. “Cinema Paradiso” opens in an era when people exclusively used film reels to make movies. The child protagonist sees the film’s material change from flammable to fire-resistant as the art advances into different eras.

The kid, Toto, grows up witnessing the changes in censorship in cinema and builds a personal connection with both sublime and obscene. Back then, films were integral to the social fabric of a community. So, he learns cinema’s importance as a medium...

It has been a big week for beloved musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the 1964 Palme d’Or and went on to international acclaim and five Oscar nominations and served as one of the key inspirations for Damien Chazelle’s La La Land.

The film got a special 60th anniversary Cannes Classics screening Thursday of the exquisitely new restoration at the Agnes Varda Theatre, which is named after the late director and is also wife of late Cherbourg writer-director Jacques Demy. This week also has seen the world premieres of two documentaries related to the film here. On Saturday night at the Buñuel Theatre in the Palais came the premiere of Once Upon a Time: Michel Legrand, an extensive two-hour documentary on the late great composer of Cherbourg and so much more.

Then on Wednesday night, also at the Buñuel, was the unveiling...

In 2001, Agnès Godard became the first woman to win the Césare award for Best Cinematography on her own (Marie Perennou shared it with three men in 1997 for her documentary “Microcosmos”). Godard’s prize was for shooting Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” the poetic riff on “Billy Budd” that investigates masculinity in the French Foreign Legion.

“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.

While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.

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No matter how convenient our digital lives are, there’s still something special about physical media — especially when it’s so beautifully and thoughtfully curated by the Criterion Collection.

Each of Criterion’s releases takes an exemplary film, from auteur classic to Hollywood blockbuster and everything in between, and includes a slew of special features — commentary tracks, restored film transfers, essays about its importance in the cinematic pantheon — that help “deepen the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of the art of cinema.”

While there are literally hundreds of important classic and contemporary...

As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.

It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.

For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...

The Criterion Collection has announced a new treat for cinephiles coming this summer. The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, a 15-disc collector’s set, will feature all 39 of the late French icon’s features, shorts, and documentaries. The set hits shelves on August 11 this year.

Each of the 15 discs presents a curation of films organized by themes that marked Varda’s work, including explorations of Paris in “Cléo From 5 to 7,” studies of married life with “Le Bonheur,” her collaborations with Jane Birkin in “Jane B. par Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master!,” and Jacques Demy with “Jacquot d Nantes,” “The Young Girls Turn 25,” and “The World of Jacques Demy,” and much more. She was married to Demy up until his death in 1990.

The full list of included titles is below. The set also features a 200-page book surveying Varda’s career, which launched in 1955 with “La Pointe Courte,” followed...

After getting a tease and the announcement of a theatrical touring retrospective, The Criterion Collection have now announced their Agnès Varda boxset, aptly titled The Complete Films of Agnès Varda. A gorgeous, epic undertaking, this treasure trove of cinematic beauty is split into different aspects of the Belgian-born French director’s life and career.

Arriving on a fifteen-disc Blu-ray release on August 11, the set features digital restorations of thirty-nine films, including the first home-video presentations of Les créatures, Jacquot de Nantes, and the television series Agnès de ci de là Varda. There’s also over seven hours of archival programs from Varda, a 200-page book, video introductions by the late filmmaker herself, and much, much more. Check out the details below.

The Films

Agnès Forever – Varda by Agnès (2019), Les 3 boutons (2015)

Early Varda – La Pointe Courte (1955), Ô saisons, ô châteaux (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958)

Around Paris – Cléo from 5 to 7...

The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky, except that the sea was slightly creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in it. Gradually as the sky whitened a dark line lay on the horizon dividing the sea from the sky and the grey cloth became barred with thick strokes moving, one after another, beneath the surface, following each other, pursuing each other perpetually. [...] Gradually the fibres of the bonfire were fused into one haze, one incandescence which lifted the weight of the woollen grey sky on top of it and turned it into a million atoms of soft blue. —Virginia Woolf, The Waves1Last month, I was in Lisbon and went to the Cinemateca Portuguesa to meet the filmmaker Rita Azevedo Gomes. We were going to meet for a coffee but she wanted to give me a tour of the Cinemateca’s bookshop first.

Chicago – If the French New Wave cinema movement (1958 to late 1960s) had a mother, it was undoubtably Agnés Varda. The versatile filmmaker began her film journey shortly before the movement began, and her influence resonated throughout that era and within her career. Varda died at the age of 90 on March 29th, 2019.

French Filmmaker Agnés Varda in Chicago, October of 2015

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Arlette “Agnés” Varda was born in Brussels, Belgium, and through her French mother applied to the Sorbonne (University of Paris) shortly after World War II, gaining a degree in literature and psychology. Continuing her education in art history, she turned to photography before becoming a voice in Left Bank Cinema and the French New Wave. Her debut film was 1954’s “La Pointe Courte,” which she built from still images of her photographs.

Her career built from there, as her follow feature...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

The Beaches of Agnès (Agnès Varda)

One week ago today we learned the news of cinematic pioneer Agnès Varda’s passing. Along with countless heartfelt appreciations, a few services are making it easier to see her films, namely Mubi. They are currently streaming a trio of her works: The Beaches of Agnès, Jacquot De Nantes, and Salut Les Cubains. Today we’re spotlighting her 2008 documentary, which takes a playful, emotional look at her upbringing and filmmaking career in a deeply personal way. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)

Drift (Helena Wittmann)

A few minutes into Helena Wittmann’s Drift, two young ladies sit at...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.

The film world lost a legendary figure on Friday morning, when it was announced that Agnès Varda had died.

The news sparked an immense outpouring of support, and it seemed as if many of the tributes were unified by a sense of boundary-breaking inspiration. Varda said that she always “wanted to make people see deeply,” that she didn’t want “to show people things, but to give people the desire to see,” and the response to her passing seems to prove that she was successful in her mission.

This week’s question: How did Agnès Varda inspire you?

Ken Bakely (@kbake_99), Freelance for Film Pulse

Though I’m unfortunately not as well-versed with Varda’s work as the many others who have written more extensive or personal tributes, what’s clear to...

Agnès Varda, “the mother of the French New Wave” who spent seven decades as a trailblazing filmmaker and documentarian, has died at the age of 90.

“The director and artist Agnes Varda died at her home on the night of Thursday, March 29, of complications from cancer,” Varda’s family said in a statement to the Afp. “She was surrounded by her family and friends,” the family said in a statement.”

The Cannes Film Festival tweeted Friday, “Immense sadness. For almost 65 years, Agnès Varda’s eyes and voice embodied cinema with endless inventiveness.

For the twenty-second year in a row, The Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance have lined up a sparkling slate for their Rendez-Vous with French Cinema screening series, which aims to showcase “the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking.” This year’s programming, including the selected films, panels, and events, includes a special focus on the myriad of ways that French culture influences the arts in America, and vice-versa.

The lineup features 23 diverse films, comprised of highlights from international festivals and works by both established favorites and talented newcomers. The series runs from March 1 – 12.

Read More: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Exclusive Trailer: Annual Series Celebrates the Very Best in Contemporary French Cinema

Ahead, check out the 6 titles and events we are most excited to check out at this year’s screening series.

“Frantz”

Screwball comedy master Ernst Lubitsch took a rare stab at straight drama with 1932’s “Broken Lullaby,...

French director is the first woman and only the fourth person to receive the honour after Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Agnès Varda is to receive an honorary Palme d’or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).

The French filmmaker will the first female director to be given the honour. Previously, only Woody Allen, in 2002, Clint Eastwood, in 2009, and Bernardo Bertolucci, in 2011, have been granted this distinction.

“And yet my films have never sold as much as theirs,” she said of following in their footsteps with her well-known sense of humour.

The award is given by the festival’s board of directors to renowned directors whose works have achieved a global impact but who have never won Cannes’ top prize - the Palme d’or.

Varda, 86, is a photographer, writer, actress, director and visual artist.

She studied photography and learned the ropes at the Avignon Festival, where she was...

The American Film Institute (AFI) announced a program of four films selected by Guest Artistic Director Agnès Varda to screen at AFI Fest 2013 presented by Audi. Varda, once a resident of Los Angeles, makes a rare return to present and discuss her work at AFI Fest. As an additional tribute to Varda, photos from her influential French New Wave film Cleo From 5 to 7 (CLÉO De 5 À 7) are featured in this year’s festival marketing and programming materials.

As Guest Artistic Director, Varda has selected films that have inspired her throughout her six-decade career: Pickpocket (Dir Robert Bresson, 1959), A Woman Under The Influence (Dir John Cassavetes, 1974), The Marriage Of Maria Braun (Dir Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) and After Hours (Dir Martin Scorsese, 1985). In addition, the festival will be screening a selection of Varda’s films, including restored versions of Cleo From 5 To 7 (CLÉO De 5 À 7) and Documenteur.

1962, PG, Artificial Eye

Agnès Varda, wife and creative companion of film-maker Jacques Demy (who died of Aids in 1990), was the token female film-maker of the French new wave, with which she was peripherally associated, though she was closer to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker. She has asserted her role as a significant figure in French cinema both through her own movies, her beautiful commemorative picture about her late husband (Jacquot de Nantes) and her wonderful autobiographical The Beaches of Agnès. Cléo from 5 to 7, her exquisite debut feature, a considerable international art house success, centres on a couple of late afternoon hours in the drifting life of a somewhat vacuous Parisian singer (Corinne Marchand) as she examines her life while anxiously awaiting a vital medical verdict. It's a beguiling, slightly indulgent work, featuring a film-within-a-film starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. Photographed by Jean Rabier, Claude Chabrol's regular cameraman, with music by Michel Legrand,...

"In the next two weeks," announces Not Coming to a Theater Near You, "in coordination with the availability of a great chunk of her oeuvre on Mubi.com, we'll be looking at an array of [Agnès] Varda films, beginning with Cléo from 5 to 7 and concluding with her most recent effort, 2008's The Beaches of Agnès. In between these poles we find Varda exploring topics from the Black Power movement of the late 1960s (Black Panthers), graffiti murals (Mur murs), homelessness (first fictionally in Vagabond, and then again in her acclaimed documentary The Gleaners & I), pedophilia (Kung-fu Master!), and the childhood memories of her beloved husband [Jacques] Demy (Jacquot de Nantes). In all of it we find a vision of cinema that overcomes many of the standard antinomies — commercial and experimental, narrative and documentary, light and heavy, political and aesthetic — in pursuit of something at once more comprehensive and more personal."...

Filmmaker Agnès Varda and friend.

Editor's note: "The Beaches of Agnes" opens in a limited run in New York and L.A. this week for Academy Award consideration. If you reside on either coast, do yourself a favor and run, don't walk, to "Beaches."

Agnès Varda Hits the Beach

By

Alex Simon

Born in Belgium in 1928, Agnès Varda is renowned for being the only female member of France’s legendary “Nouvelle Vague” (which also includes such luminaries as Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Varda’s late husband, Jacques Demy) school of filmmaking when, in 1954, she formed a film company called Cine-Tamaris for her first feature, La Pointe Courte. It earned her the title of “Grand Mother of the French New Wave,” at the tender age of 26.

Varda has made 33 films since then, alternating between shorts and features, fiction and documentaries. Some of her most famous titles include Cleo from 5 to 7...

Start: 06/24/2009 End: 06/27/2009 Timezone: America/Los Angeles Start: 06/24/2009 End: 06/27/2009 Timezone: America/Los Angeles If you're in Los Angeles, catch a crapload of films by legendary Varda June 24-27th 2009! A gifted and outspoken feminist and one of the most acclaimed directors anywhere in the world, Agnès Varda could be considered the prototype of today's independent filmmaker. Varda is a survivor, a stubborn and patient observer of her time and her people, like the pop singer in Cleo from 5 to 7, the lovers in Le Bonheur or the drifter in Vagabond. "I have fought so much since I started ... for something that comes from emotion, from visual emotion, sound emotion, feeling, and finding a shape for that," Varda has said...

Varda directed her first feature, La Pointe Courte, in 1954, with no formal training in filmmaking. The movie has often been identified as the film that started the French New Wave ("and a famous flop,...