Great Directors: Agnes Varda

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Most articles about Varda centre around arguments for or against her work as a feminist. She exists as part of a long history of French-language female filmmakers including Germaine Dulac, Marguerite Duras, Chantal Akerman and Alice Guy (who is distinguished as the first woman film director). Varda is dismissed by critic Claire Johnston as 'reactionary and certainly not feminist', yet is considered by most to be an exemplar of feminist filmmaking for her consistent use of female protagonists and crafting of a female cinematic voice. When asked if she saw herself as a feminist, she replied 'I wasn't always very clear about discrimination and it's not exactly my image.' In 1967 Chris Marker collaborated with some of France's best known directors (Godard, Resnais, Lelouch etc.) on an anti-war documentary titled Loin du Viet-Nam. Agnès Varda also contributed but reviewers rarely gave her a mention. According to Sight and Sound writer Jill Forbes, 'the silence is so systematic that Varda's exclusion must be related to the fact that she is a woman.' She is never included amongst discussions about La Nouvelle Vague. Whether or not her films can be regarded as feminist, they are certainly about women, contain socio-political, philosophical and current themes without ever losing a sense of fun or the art of entertaining an audience.

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Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian-based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study.