Agnès Varda Out of the Nouvelle Vague

Agnès Varda is a photographer, film director and a Paris-based key figure in modern film history and one of the world's leading filmmakers. She is also a Professor of Film and Documentaries at the European Graduate School (EGS), born on May 30th, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She escaped from Belgium in 1940 to go live in Sète, France with her family where she grew up during her teenager years. After studying at the École du Louvre with a focus on art history and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts, she went on to work at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris as a photographer, which is directed by the famous French actor and filmmaker Jean Villar.
Her first feature-length film, La Pointe Courte (1954), which she managed to put together with little money, was an early anticipation of the French New Wave and it was well received by the French cinema community. It starred Philippe Noiret and Silvia Monfort, both of whom would become critically-acclaimed French actors. Over the years she has received many prizes for her work. For example, in 2002 she was the recipient of the prestigious French Academy prize, Prix René Clair, for her overall cinematographic work. On April 12th 2009 she was given the highest French decoration: the National Order of the Legion of Honour. In 2010, she received an honorary degree from Liège University in Belgium. Agnès Varda is one of the rare directors to have come out of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), and yet she never rejects any attempts at labeling her.
Between 1968 and 1970, she lived in Los Angeles and made a Hollywood hippy movie called Lions Love. She is the first director to become interested in Harrison Ford. It is during that time also that she met the Lizard King, Jim Morrison, singer of the band The Doors. In fact, she ended up being one of the rare people to have been at Morrison's funeral in Paris' cemetery Père-Lachaise in 1971. Once back in France she directed an optimist feminist movie: L'une chante, l'autre pas. One of Agnès Varda's more controversial films is Kung-Fu Master (1987). This work is a fictional film, though the casting of the main characters draws an interesting parallel with reality. In a fearless way, the film tells the story of an adult woman who falls in love with a young boy named Julien. The woman is played by Agnès Varda's friend Jane Birkin, and the boy is played by Agnès Varda's son.

FILMOGRAPHY
La Pointe-Courte (1955)
La cocotte d'azur (1958)
O saisons, ô châteaux (1958)
Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald ou (1961)
 Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
Salut les cubains (1963)
Le bonheur (1965)
Les créatures (1966)
Oncle Yanco (1967)
Lions Love (1969)
Plaisir d'amour en Iran (1976)
L'une chante, l'autre pas (1977)
Documenteur (1981)
Ulysse (1982)
Sans toit ni loi (1985)
T'as de beaux escaliers tu sais (1986)
Kung-fu master! (1988)
Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988)
Jacquot de Nantes (1991)
Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995)
Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)
Le lion volatil (2003)