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Along the Coast
Du côté de la côte
French filmmaker Agnès Varda, originally born in Ixelles, died in 2019 at the age of 90, only weeks after the world premiere of her last film, Varda par Agnès. Although often overlooked for a long time in the shadow of her male French New Wave contemporaries, her work was equally crucial to the influential film movement.
Du côté de la côte was one of her very first (short) films, commissioned by the French Tourism Office, and at the time dedicated to leading French film theorist André Bazin. In the saturated film, Varda captures 1950s tourism on the Côte d'Azur: clear skies, burning sun, and cheeky parasols. A touristic tour on the French Riviera’s exoticism, full of captivating imagery, bathed in an atmosphere of nostalgia. Characteristic of Varda’s idiosyncratic style, the glorifying postcards come with some quips, hinting at the end of summer and the loss of such a tourist paradise.
Bio Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (1928-2019) was a Belgian-born French film director. She studied Art History at the École du Louvre and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts but also held a Bachelor’s in Literature and Psychology from the Sorbonne. While working as a photographer, Varda became interested in making a film, even though she knew little about the industry. Varda’s feature film debut was La Pointe Courte (1955), but her film Cléo de 5 à 7 (1961) established her name and became a landmark of the French New Wave. Varda wanted to make films in line with her time, rather than focusing on traditions or classical standards.