“The Beaches of Agnès”: The Self-Portrait of Varda
Abstract
The work of Agnès Varda - one of the most personal and independent in whole history of the cinema - is not easily classified using the terms of genre traditionally used in film studies. Her feature films usually contain some documentary elements, while her documentaries are constructed following the rules of artistic creation. It is with this in mind that Lubelski presents Varda’s The Beaches of Agnès (2008), which the director considers to be her true self-portrait. Lubelski lists arguments in order to confirm the thesis, that the self-portrait is a specific formula for The Beaches of Agnès, and a construction pattern for the film. But this self-portrait is one of a kind - a self-portrait, and yet imagination, in which Varda includes fragments filmed during real performance shows, in which she took part, news reports, and inter-textual references (quotes from her own films, reproduction of art etc). This is a very particular self-portrait, in which the author - although she is always present - pays more attention to others than herself, as if the reproduction of her own memories served to create new and refresh the old relationships with others, and did not serve the process of “learning more about oneself”.
Keywords:
Agnès Varda, autobiographism, self-portraitReferences
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Authors
Tadeusz Lubelskikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Profesor w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ, historyk i krytyk filmu, znawca historii filmu polskiego i francuskiego. Autor takich publikacji, jak Poetyka powieści i filmów Tadeusza Konwickiego (1984), Strategie autorskie w polskim filmie fabularnym lat 1945-1961 (1992, 2000), Nowa Fala. O pewnej przygodzie kina francuskiego (2000), Wajda (2006), Historia kina polskiego. Twórcy, filmy, konteksty (2008). Tłumacz klasycznej pracy Hitchcock / Truffaut (2005). Redaktor Encyklopedii kina (2003) i Historii kina (t. I, 2009). Od 2006 r. członek Europejskiej Akademii Filmowej, a od 2007 r. przewodniczący Komitetu Nauk o Sztuce PAN.
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