Movie Review – The Beaches of Agnes

The Beaches of Agnes (2008)
Written and directed by Agnes Varda

In her 2000 documentary The Gleaners and I, Agnes Varda shared how she had difficulty remembering even recent journeys she had been on. What helped her recall those rich details were the objects & souvenirs she returned with. In The Beaches of Agnes, the director surveys the entirety of her life up to this point, which is quite daunting to remember. To aid in that, she composes a bricolage of items. These trinkets are scattered on various beaches whose locations played a significant role in Varda’s life. The film was made to celebrate the artist’s 80th birthday, and she wonders aloud if this would be her final picture. It would not be, but at this point in her life, each subsequent movie surely felt like the last piece of art she would make.

As someone who had just begun watching the films of Varda, I knew little about her personal life aside from the fact she was married to Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort). The film opens on a beach in Belgium, where Varda was born and lived part of her childhood. She has her young assistants arranging mirrors in the sand. The voice-over tells us she visited this place often as a little girl. The mirrors remind her that the little girl that played on this beach has become someone else, that much time has passed. 

So often, Varda’s work is interested in the faces & lives of others. She is undoubtedly curious and interested to see another person’s worldview. In this film, she explains a metaphor for what it feels like to explore her own life: “If we open people up, we would find a landscape. If we open me up, we would find beaches.” The beach that became important to her after Belgium would be found in Sete, France, at the southern tip where France meets Spain. World War II sent her family packing, and she notes that those years were not colored the same way for her as they were for others closer to the action. In Sete, Varda lived a relatively idyllic life. The Nazis never made it that far in their march, yet she understood many of the den mothers in her scout group were hiding Jewish refugees.

In Sete, she picks up photography as an artistic passion, the prelude to the body of film work to come. In these early years, Varda is already interested in regular people living their lives. She points her camera at working-class people in this seaside community. Her early film work incorporates non-actors, “normal” people. There’s a beautiful sequence where she returns a short film to the middle-aged sons of a man who appeared in it. Their father died when they were very young children, and it is through Varda’s film that they see him alive again, vibrant shades of themselves reflected on the screen. Varda mounts a projector & screen on a pushcart and has the men watch their father walking through the community as they move the film of him down cobblestone streets and narrow alleys, the movement adding another layer of life.

The film’s middle section is overflowing with life and reflections on growth & transformation. It eventually leads into a heartbreaking sequence about her beloved Jacques. He contracted HIV by 1990, and his quality of life declined quite rapidly. He had planned to make an autobiographical film, Jacques of Nantes, but didn’t have the energy to do it. Varda took up the project, showing her partner the dailies and getting his feedback. This is the saddest you’re likely to see Varda, holding back tears as she talks about the vision of his life feeling more vibrant as she worked while his actual body was decaying. He was alive & dying for her all at once during this time. 

Varda’s films in the wake of The Gleaners and I tend to focus on this reflection. She came to see her filmmaking as a form of gleaning in that documentary, a way of finding the little bits left behind and making meaning of them. The Beaches of Agnes is Varda gleaning through her own life. Becoming an octogenarian will make us deeply introspective; I hope it will. To have lived so much life, we should have a desire to glean through all those moments in search of an understanding of ourselves & our world. 

There’s a strong sense of experimentation throughout the work. Varda attempts re-enactment, casting a little girl as her own young self, commenting to the camera as the scene is acted out behind her. She even speaks to the child actors and then back to the camera. I get the sense she isn’t sure what this means, but she is following a feeling, seeing where this notion guides her. Varda reflects on her films, selecting clips that complement her thesis for Beaches. In a scene from her documentary about actress Jane Birkin, Varda calls this reflection like piecing together a puzzle. Birkin wryly responds that you realize pieces are still missing even when you finish. This concept resonates; as much introspection as we do, there is no moment of total clarity. Even though the project will always remain incomplete, something of value cannot be gained. 

After a surprise birthday party on the beach with her children & grandchildren, the film moves to where it seems to just be Varda & the camera. We don’t know if someone is behind it. I saw this as the point all of us reach. Those who walked alongside will not remain there forever; they drift away for a multitude of reasons. In the end, we are left with ourselves. When we reach this moment, will the company of ourselves be enough? I hope it will. To be comfortable with yourself, you must do some work. Like Varda, we must survey our lives & see what things float to the top. What things do we try to escape? Always ask why, both over the things we love and those that pain us.