The Beaches of Agnès

Part of Varda: A Retrospective

“If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes. If we opened me up, we’d find beaches,” Varda once said. Turning the camera on herself with the coasts of France and Belgium as a backdrop, Varda shares and reenacts moments from her past, examining both her successes and failures while maintaining a loose connection to history and finding new ways to express herself. Equal parts playful, surprising, and profound, The Beaches of Agnès is a richly imaginative self-portrait that touches on everything from feminism and the Black Panthers to the birth of the French New Wave. Winner, César Award for Best Documentary.