Agnès Varda is a French photographer, film director, and artist, born in Belgium to a Greek father and French mother in 1928. In 1940 her family moved to France. In Paris, she studied photography at l’école des Beaux-Arts before starting her career as a photographer at the Theatre National Populaire, then led by Jean Vilar.
She stumbled upon movies without having received any real training. In her films, she brings a breath of fresh air to French cinema. She is a pioneer, particularly due to her status as a woman working in a medium inhabited almost exclusively by men. She met the director Jacques Demy – who would become her husband, in 1958.
Her most notable films include La Pointe Courte (1954), Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) Sans Toit Ni Loi (1985), Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (2000), Les Plages d’Agnès (2008)…
Agnes Varda: “I wasn’t listed anywhere, and I had no business card. For each film, I needed a waiver from the CNC. I only got my official card ten years later, after filming three features and three shorts. I am director No. 2197. If there were separate lists for men and women, I would undoubtedly have been in the first ten. “
