Agnès Varda’s Films and the Art of Seeing Differently

Agnès Varda made films that feel curious, intimate and unmistakably alive. Across documentaries, fiction, essays and hybrid works, she looked closely at ordinary people, overlooked places and the quiet drama of everyday life. Her cinema could be playful one moment and politically searching the next.

Often associated with the French New Wave, Varda developed a style that was distinctly her own. She worked outside conventional genre boundaries, moving between staged scenes and real-life observation. Her films explore memory, ageing, feminism, grief, artistic identity and the simple pleasure of paying attention.

For Australian viewers, her work has a particular appeal. A film such as The Gleaners and I can resonate in a country familiar with long distances, resourcefulness and debates about waste, while Documenteur carries the melancholy of temporary homes and unfamiliar cities. Her warmth also makes difficult subjects accessible during a quiet night in with a cuppa.

Varda’s filmography is broad enough to reward both newcomers and dedicated cinephiles. Some titles are readily found through repertory screenings and specialist platforms; others are easier to locate in curated DVD collections, imported editions or carefully selected film retailers.

Film	Year	Form	A useful starting point
Cléo from 5 to 7	1962	Fiction	A vivid portrait of time, fear and self-image
Vagabond	1985	Fiction	A stark, fragmented study of freedom and isolation
The Gleaners and I	2000	Documentary	A personal investigation of reuse, poverty and collecting
The Beaches of Agnès	2008	Autobiographical documentary	Varda reflects on her life and creative practice
Faces Places	2017	Documentary road film	A generous collaboration across rural France

A filmmaker outside the usual categories

Varda was born in Belgium in 1928 and began making films in France before the New Wave became an internationally recognised movement. Her debut feature, La Pointe Courte (1955), was created with limited resources and a strong interest in both documentary realism and formal experimentation.

Her approach differed from the more male-dominated image of the movement. While directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut often focused on cinema, rebellion and romantic uncertainty, Varda brought sustained attention to women’s lives, domestic spaces, labour and social marginalisation.

Cléo from 5 to 7 and lived time

Cléo from 5 to 7 follows a singer moving through Paris while waiting for medical test results. Its real-time structure gives ordinary minutes a sharp emotional charge. Shops, cafés, streets and conversations become part of Cléo’s shifting state of mind.

The film’s Paris is stylish without feeling sealed off from daily life. Varda observes performance, vanity and vulnerability with equal patience. For viewers used to Melbourne’s trams or Sydney’s busy footpaths, the pleasure lies in watching a city become a psychological landscape rather than a decorative backdrop.

The force of Vagabond

In Vagabond, a young woman named Mona is found dead in a ditch, and the film reconstructs her final weeks through interviews and fragmented encounters. The structure refuses to offer a neat explanation of her choices or an easy moral judgement.

Sandrine Bonnaire’s performance gives Mona an unsettling independence. She is neither romanticised as a free spirit nor reduced to a social problem. Varda’s shifting viewpoints make the audience aware of how quickly strangers invent stories about someone they barely know.

Documentary as an encounter

Varda’s documentaries rarely feel like distant reports. She appears in them, speaks with people, reveals the process of filming and allows accidents to shape the finished work. This method creates a sense of companionship rather than authority.

The Gleaners and I is a key example. Travelling through France with a small digital camera, Varda meets people who collect discarded food, objects and materials. Her interest is practical and philosophical: what gets thrown away, who is allowed to possess things, and how a camera can preserve fleeting encounters.

Memory, ageing and self-portraiture

Later films turn increasingly towards autobiography without becoming private exercises detached from the world. The Beaches of Agnès gathers locations, photographs, artworks and recollections into a playful self-portrait. Varda revisits childhood, friendships, relationships and professional milestones while acknowledging the gaps in memory.

Her final feature, Varda by Agnès, presents her ideas about cinema through selected clips and spoken commentary. It is especially valuable for viewers who want to understand her recurring principles: empathy, curiosity, visual invention and a willingness to look at subjects usually ignored by mainstream film.

Places, people and visual invention

Varda often makes locations feel like active participants. The beaches in her autobiographical work, the Paris streets in Cléo from 5 to 7 and the rural communities in Faces Places carry emotional and social meaning. She notices textures, gestures, walls, windows, clothing and weather.

Her images can be formally striking without becoming showy. Mirrors, colour, theatrical sets, still photographs and playful editing all appear across her work. A roadside mural or a discarded object may become as significant as a carefully composed portrait.

Finding her films in Australia

Australian audiences can encounter Varda through film societies, university cinemas, festival programs and repertory venues. Melbourne’s ACMI and Cinemathèque culture, Sydney’s art-house circuit and Brisbane’s independent screening scene often provide pathways into international classics, though individual programs change regularly.

Physical editions remain useful for rare or restored titles, especially when streaming rights shift between services or differ by region. A specialist retailer such as Sasquatch Video can suit viewers searching for classic, foreign, silent, documentary and collectible films beyond the usual supermarket shelf.

Gift certificates are available by email in values from $20 to $1,000, which can work well for a film enthusiast in Perth, Adelaide or regional New South Wales who enjoys choosing their own editions. Since certificates are non-refundable, the recipient should select carefully and check the retailer’s terms before purchasing.

Choosing a Varda film for a new viewer

A first encounter can begin with Cléo from 5 to 7, particularly for viewers drawn to stylish storytelling and urban character studies. Those interested in social issues may prefer The Gleaners and I, while anyone fascinated by filmmaking and personal history could start with The Beaches of Agnès.

The most rewarding approach is to follow Varda’s curiosity rather than expect a conventional genre journey. Her films invite viewers to slow down, notice overlooked details and reconsider the boundaries between fiction, documentary and lived experience. That generosity is the enduring power of her cinema.