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      The Beaches of Agnès

      2008 1h 50m Documentary Biography List
      96% 73 Reviews Tomatometer 88% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score In this autobiographical documentary, celebrated French filmmaker Agnes Varda provides a window into her eventful life as she revisits various locales that have been important to her. Interspersed between these trips are interviews with Varda's collaborators and family members, as well as archive footage and still photographs. This eclectic mix provides both a history of the subject and an illuminating tour of an artist's mind and creative process. Read More Read Less
      The Beaches of Agnès

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      Critics Consensus

      An enchanting self-portrait by a veteran director, Beach of Agnes is equal parts playful and profound.

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      Critics Reviews

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      Jonathan Romney Sight & Sound For all its melancholy and its profound awareness of mortality, The Beaches of Agnès is one of the jolliest, more life-affirming self-portraits in recent cinema. Jul 6, 2018 Full Review Richard Brody New Yorker Varda, free from fear and shame, turns her tale of a life lived in art into a work of art in its own right, and one of her best-a rapturous tribute to life itself. Apr 25, 2016 Full Review Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Farah Cheded A Good Movie To Watch The overall effect is bittersweet and profoundly inspiring: as with the mirrors she places in front of the tide in the film's first scene, she’s showing us it’s possible to face the inescapable with a twinkle in your eye. Rated: 90/100 Aug 12, 2023 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Just about the most unusual and inventive biopic one could ever hope to see. Rated: 3.5/4 Sep 6, 2020 Full Review John Powers NPR's Fresh Air A wonderful portrait of a full life - smart, touching, sometimes unabashedly silly... May 17, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Petros T I really liked the shots at the beach with the mirrors and in general Varda's aesthetics, but for me the best parts of the film are when she looks back on her relationship with Demy. For the casual viewer, it sums up her career and gives condensed glimpses of her work throughout the decades but might be a little too talky (I enjoyed it more when she let others speak), so it's probably a film that works best for the initiated as they can appreciate her musings and the backstage access a lot more. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Rarely have I seen an artist talk so candidly and playfully about her history, career and inspirations like Agnes Varda does in this wonderful combination of intimate memoir and self-analysis that celebrates life and (her) memories with a lot of humor and nostalgia. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member It has become something of a cliche for the art film to make the beach its figurative crux. The defining feature of our physical world has been appropriated as the brand of the art film. Along with The Beach trope we have The Mirror. Perhaps no film is bold enough to exist without having at least one shot of a protagonist sizing themselves up in the mirror whether it be in self loathing or contemplation. Enter Agnes Varda who opens her film The Beaches of Agnes by bringing mirrors to the beach. By playfully compounding cliches Varda breathes new life into the all but dead poetic qualities of beaches and mirrors while also re-establishing the triumph of personal imagination over a cinema that is more than ever plagued by convention and commercialization. Varda is arguably the original pioneer of the French new wave, leading the charge even before Godard Rivette and Truffaut. One of the greatest achievements of the French New Wave was bucking the studio/genre constraints that had long kept cinema from realizing itself as an art of personal expression. In the Beaches of Agnes, Varda takes the documentary/autobiographical form to new personal heights with a wide array of sound-image techniques. What separates Beaches of Agnes from its counterparts is its dedication to creating a personal style to match its personal content. Autobiographical voice-over juxtaposed with montage, found-footage, re-creation, and installation like mise en scene are few of the many methods Varda uses to further personalize an artistic medium that is arguably fundamentally at odds with personal expression. Hence we return to those beaches and mirrors which proves that the greatest qualities of the The French New Wave established by Varda are far from dated and contemporary filmmakers should be taking notes. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Inventive, madly moving, a thousand surprises Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Que delícia de filme. Uma autobiografia em fragmentos recortados, selecionados pela memória afetiva. "Je me souviens pendant que je vis." Depois... Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Delightful French movie about and by Agnes Varda. Enjoyed it very much. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis In this autobiographical documentary, celebrated French filmmaker Agnes Varda provides a window into her eventful life as she revisits various locales that have been important to her. Interspersed between these trips are interviews with Varda's collaborators and family members, as well as archive footage and still photographs. This eclectic mix provides both a history of the subject and an illuminating tour of an artist's mind and creative process.
      Director
      Agnès Varda
      Screenwriter
      Agnès Varda, Agnès Varda
      Genre
      Documentary, Biography
      Original Language
      French (Canada)
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 17, 2017
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $239.7K
      Runtime
      1h 50m