Agnès Varda: From Here to There

Combining autobiography and travelogue, the octogenarian French director's latest cinematic diary—a sort of sequel to her 2008 feature The Beaches of Agnès (VL-3/10)—is presented in five 45-minute episodes made for French television. Offering another engaging entrée into Varda's rich world of past experience and present friendship, we follow the filmmaker as she meets other directors—visiting the Paris studio of the reclusive but genial Chris Marker, sharing a stage with centenarian Manoel de Oliveira in Portugal, chatting with Alexander Sokurov in St. Petersburg—and travels with friends and family to Nantes for a 50th anniversary celebration of late husband Jacques Demy's debut feature Lola. These are but a few of the myriad places and people Varda encounters during her odyssey, and at each stop she photographs whatever catches her eye, adding stills, film clips, and archival material to the mix along with her commentary. Throughout, the vast variety of art she observes—from old masters to items sold in shops—serves as a motif, while mortality becomes a theme in the last segment (although not in a morose way). A stream-of-consciousness air pervades the series, along with an appreciation for the changes brought about by the passage of time—encapsulated in the footage of Varda's backyard that opens each episode, showing the foliage flourishing and being pruned back, only to grow again. Full of memorable moments, this documentary series is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)