Agnès Varda between Film, Photography, and Art Rebecca J. DeRoo university of california press Agnès Varda between Film, Photography, and Art Agnès Varda between Film, Photography, and Art Rebecca J. DeRoo university of california press University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2018 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: DeRoo, Rebecca J., author. Title: Agnès Varda between fi lm, photography, and art / Rebecca J. DeRoo. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed. Identifi ers: lccn 2017007722 (print) | lccn 2017011585 (ebook) | isbn 9780520968202 (ebook) | isbn 9780520279407 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780520279414 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: lcsh: Varda, Agnès, 1928—Criticism and interpretation. | Women motion picture producers and directors--France--Criticism and interpretation. Classifi cation: lcc pn1998.3.v368 (ebook) | lcc pn1998.3.v368 d47 2017 (print) | ddc 791.43023/3092—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007722 Manufactured in the United States of America 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my parents Contents Acknowledgments viii 1. Reinterpreting Varda: The Mother of the New Wave Reframes Its Histories 1 2. Complicating Neorealism and the New Wave: La Pointe Courte 19 3. Filmic and Feminist Strategies: Questioning Ideals of Happiness in Le Bonheur 49 4. Reconsidering Contradictions: Feminist Politics and the Musical Genre in L’une chante, l’autre pas 70 5. The Limits of Documentary: Identity and Urban Transformation in Daguerréotypes 84 6. Melancholy and Merchandise: Documenting and Displaying Widowhood in L’île et elle 115 7. Varda Now: Autobiography, Memory, and Retrospective 143 Notes 161 Bibliography 205 Index 227 Acknowledgments Many wonderful people and institutions have helped me bring this book to fruition. I am deeply grateful to Agnès Varda, and her daughter Rosalie Varda, for so generously sharing time, ideas, collections, and the Ciné- Tamaris archives, making this project possible. I am indebted to Anita Benoliel, Cecilia Rose, Stéphanie Scanvic, and Julia Fabry for facilitating my research at Ciné-Tamaris and for their ever-warm welcome. The inter- pretations off ered here are, of course, my own. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mentors, colleagues, and friends who off ered scholarly sources and insights, read work in progress, and supported and encouraged me. They have strengthened this project in more ways than I can ever describe. My sincere thanks go to my editor Raina Polivka, the University of California Press staff , and the two anonymous manuscript reviewers for their rigorous and helpful readings. I am grateful for opportunities to present early versions of this work at conferences and lectures, and for stimulating discussions that have enriched this book. For generous funding of my project in its early stages, I thank the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Association of University Women. An American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant and Faculty Development Grant from Rochester Institute viii acknowledgments ix of Technology supported subsequent archival research. I am grateful for the RIT College of Liberal Arts Faculty Research Grant, Faculty Development Fund Grant, and Publication Cost Grant, which supported archival research, permissions, and reproductions for various components of the book’s extensive illustration program. The Paul and Francena Miller Fellowship supported a fruitful semester of research leave to bring the manuscript to completion. The outstanding research librarians and interlibrary loan staff at Rochester Institute of Technology and Bryn Mawr College off ered invaluable assistance in tracking down hard-to-obtain sources. For sharing their docu- mentation and collections with me and assisting in my research endeavors, I thank the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BNF Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), Bibliothèque du Film, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Archives Françaises du Film du CNC, Bibliothèque Forney, Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, and Institut National de l’Audiovisuel. These collections were critical to developing my interpretations of the connections between Varda’s work and histories of cinema, art, photography, and visual culture. I honor pioneering critics and scholars and contemporary colleagues for establishing and ever expanding the literature on Varda’s oeuvre. In this project, I have sought to represent patterns in this literature and the range of scholarly interpretation, both past and present. When possible, I have used English translations of sources; I have used English fi lm subti- tles for consistency with occasional minor alterations. Other translations, unless indicated diff erently, are my own. I use Varda’s French fi lm titles and English translations. It was a delight to work with Jurij Meden, Curator of Film Exhibitions at the George Eastman Museum, in putting together the 2016 fi lm retrospec- tive Agnès Varda: (Self-) Portraits. Facts and Fiction. I warmly thank the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology, the George Eastman Museum, and colleagues for undertaking this collaborative project. Special thanks go to my chairs and colleagues in the Department of Performing Arts and Visual Culture and the Museum Studies Program,