4 by Agnes Varda: The Criterion Collection

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The French New Wave, much like the classical Hollywood it paid homage to, was almost exclusively a man´s game. Agnès Varda stands as the only major exemption (aside perhaps from Marguerite Duras who wrote the script for Alain Resnais´ "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" (1959)) though her career both precedes and only briefly intersects the New Wave proper. Varda sprung on the scene seemingly out of nowhere with her fiction-documentary hybrid "La Pointe Courte" in 1954. A true autodidact, Varda not only taught herself how to shoot a film, but claimed that she hadn´t even seen many other films at the time of her first work.

"La Pointe Courte" was a bracing effort that won critical praise, but did little to jumpstart Varda´s career. She would not shoot another film for four years, and would not produce her next feature film until 1962. The wait proved more than worth it when that second film "Cléo from 5 to 7" became one of the defining works of the French New Wave, and was nominated for the Palme d´Or at Cannes. Varda produced two more documentary shorts before releasing "Le Bonheur" ("Happiness") in 1965, her most shocking and, perhaps, most overlooked film. By then, Varda had already begun to drift away from the New Wave which was just as well since the other New Wave directors had done the same as well and has spent the rest of her career shifting seamlessly between non-fiction and fiction, and the short and long form. Varda´s film output was relatively sparse in the 1970s, which led to an understandable dwindling of critical interest, but she came right back in the 80s with one of her finest works "Vagabond" (1985.) Varda, who will turn 80 this May, continues to work actively; her 2001 documentary "The Gleaners and I" and 2004´s "Cinevardaphoto" hold up alongside her strongest films.

Criterion´s new boxed set "4 by Agnes Varda" collects four of her feature films: "La Pointe Courte," "Cléo from 5 to 7," "Le Bonheur" and "Vagabond" along with several short films and a whole passel of extras which I will discuss below. "Cleo" and "Vagabond" were previously released by Criterion and retain their previous spine numbers (73 and 74, respectively) while the other two are new releases. Short reviews of each film follow.

"La Pointe Courte"

This film is sometimes identified by scholars today as the first French New Wave film, though it´s really more accurate to say that the film presages the New Wave which wouldn´t begin in earnest until the end of the decade. Like some New Wave films, "La Pointe Courte" blends fiction and non-fiction elements. Set in a Mediterranean fishing village, the film tells two stories: one of a vacationing couple whose marriage is in jeopardy; the other which tracks the everyday lives of the villagers. Varda makes little effort to blend the two major threads, instead cutting abruptly back and forth between each story. This bold structure was inspired by William Faulkner´s "The Wild Palms." Of the two stories, the semi-ethnographic tales of the villagers and their clashes with the coast guard is by far the more compelling. However, Varda saves her New Wave-ish editing flourishes for the married couple who are often depicted in close-ups with jarring angles, with one lover´s face partially blocking out the other. It´s the sort of stylistic excess that would get parodied as quintessentially French on "Monty Python" ("I see you have a Webb´s Wonder") but it is both effective and occasionally startling.

"Cléo from 5 to 7"

Best known today as one of the first "real time" movies, the film follows its titular protagonist through an hour and a half of personal anguish (the film actually only goes from 5 to 6:30 – I guess "5 to 7" sounds better as a title). Cléo (Corinne Marchand), a slightly-vacuous and slightly-talented pop singer, fears the worst as she waits for the results of a recent medical exam, and tries to subsume her fears in a flurry of shopping, walking, and whining. I have always thought of this as the film in which a very shallow person has to deal with some very profound thoughts. It´s also a shining document of Paris on a beautiful summer afternoon.

The film is so rich and densely packed that new details unfold on each viewing. This time, I noticed the ways in which the tarot card reader at the beginning of the film blows smoke right up poor Cléo´s lovely posterior. "Was your mother a widow?" "No." "Then you have a close friend who is a widow." It´s classic cold reading technique (i.e. bullshit) and may be yet another documentary aspect of the film that has gone largely unnoticed. And then there´s the kittens lurking everywhere in Cléo´s absolutely fabulous apartment; they´re so cute and cuddly and teeny-tiny, she must have them turned in every three weeks for fresh ones.

"Le Bonheur"

For me, this is the crowning achievement of Varda´s career. Deceptively simple, so shiny and perfect on the surface, this is one of the most transgressive films of the New Wave. I can´t really discuss the film without providing spoilers (let me warn you: DO NOT READ THE CHAPTER TITLES ON THE INSIDE SLEEVE of this DVD!!!). Instead, I´ll simply note that this film has more to say about the horrors of happiness than any other film I´ve ever seen. It is a testament to the notion that a person who is happy all the time either has to engage in near total denial or be a genuine sociopath. Other films have touched on the pathology of happiness ("Pleasantville," for example) but none have done so with such boldness and clarity of vision. There is not a hint of irony or smugness in this film, and for that matter it isn´t even pessimistic, just goddamn shake-you-to-your-core stunning. It´s the kind of film that can actually change your understanding of the world, and if that sounds like an exaggeration, then I can only ask you to watch the movie and see if you feel the same way.

"Vagabond"

Seventeen year-old Sandrine Bonnaire turns in a career-making performance as Mona, a drifter who has embraced the kind of freedom that others only dream about. She lives where she likes, does what she wants to, and even accepts charity from strangers without so much as a thank you. Mona´s free-wheeling ways touch the lives of almost everyone she comes in contact with, though she honestly couldn´t care less. Don´t let that description fool you into thinking this is a feel-good empowerment fest. There´s nothing romantic about this dirty, lazy girl eking out an existence on the fringe of the fringe of society. Life is cold and hard and ugly for someone with no roots and no aspirations, but Mona remains implacably Mona-esque no matter what happens. This is not necessarily a virtue. Whether you see Mona as the fun-house mirror image of the John Wayne rugged individualist or an exemplar of eighties nihilism, the film offers no easy answers and little direct access to its protagonist´s inner life.

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