César, Palme and Oscar awards, Prix René-Clair from the Académie Française, Berlinale Camera: Agnès Varda was one of the most gifted and original French filmmakers of her generation. A precursor of the Nouvelle Vague, an avid traveler, an independent woman, a photographer and an artist sensitive to changes in society: Agnès Varda was one of the great figures of French cinema. The Cinémathèque pays tribute to this artist, who passed away in 2019, with a major retrospective organized from October 11, 2023 to January 28, 2024.

Her filmography includes more than forty short and feature films navigating between fiction and documentary, including the essential Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Without roof or law (1985) and Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (2000). A globetrotter and artist of conviction, Varda also shows great attention to social upheavals. Interspersed with photographs, costumes, archives and installations, the exhibition will show how her polymorphous work, crossed by the themes of feminism, ecology and marginality, is very relevant today.

The Viva Varda! exhibition brings together some 250 works, retracing the artist's life and career. On view are photographs, some previously unseen, taken by Agnès Varda herself, film extracts , documents and archives, film posters, paintings, costumes, a video installation, and objects and accessories from the filmmaker's personal collection.

The exhibition takes viewers through 70 years of creation, 70 years of committed work, whose messages and styles still resonate with us today. Feminism, the environment and ecology, marginalized and deprived populations: the artist's short and feature-length films paint a portrait of a society, and reveal her convictions and sensibilities.

This retrospective is divided into different chapters, enabling us to better understand Agnès Varda, her relationship with art and her work. The Cinémathèque explores her relationship with images, with film writing, her different families of heart and creation, her insatiable curiosity for elsewhere, and her identity as a feminist woman, free and happy.

More information on the event can be found here.