Review: THE BEACHES OF AGNES

THE BEACHES OF AGNES (Les plages d’Agnès) is an enticingly unusual documentary from critically acclaimed filmmaker Agnès Varda, best known for making films like CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and VAGABOND. Varda has also made her share of documentary films over the years, such as THE GLEANERS AND I, but none quite like this.

Varda wrote and directed this autobiographical documentary of her life, born 1928 in Brussels, Belgium. Her family moved to France early in her life and this shift had a huge impact on her development into an artist. Beginning as a photographer, she migrated naturally into filmmaking, taking the cinema on with little background in the medium. However, as is clearly pointed out time and again in this film, Varda was most influenced by the people around her, others in her life, both significant as well as the common people who worked and lived around here.

THE BEACHES OF AGNES begins with Varda making a spoken disclaimer on film, informing the audience that she prefers to put her camera on other people, revealing other people’s stories, because this is what fascinated her. From here, she delves into a surreal sequence on the beach with a number of various mirrors, which she playfully arranges in the sand, facing the sea, filming and photographing with a small group of young, admiring men and women assisting with the project.

Two things become evident in this first scene; one being Varda’s unique ability to construct beautifully delicate images within the frame of her lens and her use of music to help evoke an image, the other is that THE BEACHES OF AGNES will not be the typical documentary pieced together with narration, static interviews and stock footage. This would be a living, breathing account of Varda’s life, not just of her past but also of what makes her tick, her influences and her process.

Varda emphasizes her disconnect from her childhood, revealing how World War II and the horrific treatment of the Jews in France had a significant impact on her view of the world. The portions of her childhood that she does reflect upon are reenacted in real-time, with the modern day Varda stepping in to narrate on camera. These scenes are wonderfully whimsical and offer a fresh approach, amidst many, used in her film.

THE BEACHES OF AGNES also reveals a tremendous amount of Varda’s personality through accounts with others, from her intimate relationship with Jacques Demy, the famous French filmmaker with whom she had married and drawn great inspiration from in her life, as well as individuals depicted in her films and photographs whom she reacquaints herself with decades later in this documentary.

Jacques Demy holds a tremendous amount of weight in THE BEACHES OF AGNES, as he did in Varda’s life, both as a colleague and a husband. Family increasingly becomes her focal point, amidst recollections of cultural and political memoirs both in Europe and in America. The film balances like a ballerina, swaying gracefully between reality and fantasy, merging the two into a single nostalgic three-dimensional space.

Unlike most of her films, THE BEACHES OF AGNES reveals a much lighter and inquisitively playful side of Agnes Varda. Her on screen persona is that of an elderly woman being a child, but a child wise with years of experience. Many of her reenactments include offbeat props filling in for the real objects. One of the more peculiar is that of a cutout orange cat that represents the discreet filmmaker Chris Marker. This cat makes a number of appearances in the film, adding commentary to Varda’s story.

Overall, THE BEACHES OF AGNES is a splendid guided tour through a well-respected artist’s life, filled with surprises. As an audience, we’re led through the multi-faceted paths into her mind, heart and soul, encouraged to use our imaginations as she has for so many years. Those familiar with Agnes Varda’s work should appreciate this slight change of pace, while those not familiar will find THE BEACHES OF AGNES an inviting way to be introduced.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars