Slideshow
DAGUERRÉOTYPES
France, 1975
Directed by Agnès Varda
Starring Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda, Mystag the Magician
In French with English subtitles
Approx. 80 min.
Of course Varda lived for more than 40 years on a street named for the French photography pioneer. In this neighborhood portrait, we meet the butcher, the baker, and other shopkeepers who live or work between no. 70-90 Rue Daguerre. “Each morning, the curtain rises on the daily scenes,” Varda tells us, proceeding to draw us into their lives.
Followed by
Rue Daguerre in 2005
France, 2005
Directed by Agnès Varda
In French with English subtitles
23 mins.
Varda revisits the stores and some of the people she interviewed 30 years earlier, in DAGUERRÉOTYPES, and meets some new neighbors.
Presented with support from The Helen Frankenthaler Endowed Fund for Films on Art and The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund
Reviews
“Varda makes you care about the people involved and makes you want to know more about them. The film is also a striking sociological record of a way and quality of life which is rapidly and regretfully disappearing.”
– Leslie Hardcastle, London International Film Festival
“Mme. Varda has made in DAGUERRÉOTYPES a work of fiction. It is not cinéma vérité. It is a creative work, because of her wish to turn it into a shelter for a particular sort of spirit that she wants to be enduring, and this is the force behind any fictional artist.”
– Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker
“Varda artfully blends realism and fantasy in this most affectionate of group portraits.”
– The Village Voice