Blog Post: Agnes Varda

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2019/04/agnes-varda-director-filmmaker-women-feminism-death-legacy

This article talks about Agnès Varda and her revolutionary films. Varda made her first film 5 years before the New Wave cinema started. The article points out that even during the New Wave, women were portrayed in a way that was relatively traditional. Varda's movies did not necessarily break these roles but instead focused on "male callousness." Her movies focused on the inner lives of women and as they progressed, they began to have more radical themes for their time. While watching Le Bonheur, I was at first confused by the message she was portraying. The two women protagonists in the movie did not have personalities that were not in relation to François. Without knowing the point of the movie, I think its feminist intentions were a bit lost. Knowing that this was a specific choice that Varda made as a way to comment on and critique the male character made the message of the movie more clear.
Varda had also engaged in many social movements throughout her life. This article briefly talks about her life outside of films. In the late 1960's she began to study and make documentaries on the Black Panther movement. In 1977, she made her movie: One Sings, the Other Doesn't that talked about the pro-choice movement in France. She played a very important role in exposing social issues through her films.
For my next project, I think I will be continuing the topic of how sex is portrayed in movies. My initial two movies were considered very feminist films, and both essentially surrounded female sexuality. I want to explore this subject by looking at women editors that find it empowering, and others that believe it caters to the male gaze.