The Young Girls Turn 25

Agnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style. The career of Agnès Varda is an important... and often overlooked voice in the modern French cinema. Her career pre-dates the start of the Nouvelle Vague , andLa Pointe Courte contains many elements specific to that movement that make it famous. Varda was born Arlette Varda in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of Christiane and Eugene Jean Varda, an engineer. Her mother was French and her father's family were Greek refugees from Asia Minor. Varda studied Art History at the Ecole du Louvre before getting a job as the official photographer for the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris. She liked photography but was interested in moving into film. After spending a few days filming the small French fishing town of La Pointe Courte for a terminally ill friend who could no longer visit on his own, Varda decided to shoot a feature film of her own.
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