It's not too often a filmmaker will give us a full and unambiguous autobiography on film; if we find out about who they are, he or she will bring themselves into the art that is ostensibly other stories. Agnes Varda looks back on her life using cinema and it is among the most unique things I've ever seen - though it is not inconsistent with many films she has made before (The Gleaners and I comes to mind) as far as her life being inextricably and most often joyfully being connected with her work. This doesn't mean she doesn't shy away from the pain as well; the parts regarding Jacques Demy in his final years are somber and tender.

Pure, unadulterated imagination, heart, empathy, a light yet wholly potent surrealism, a seemingly endless connection to other people, art, photography, and of course those cats (including an eccentric cameo by Chris Marker). I feel like I got a lifetime in just a little under two hours. And how about her cardboard car that she tries to park into her tiny garage!

And it's the kind of wonderful and priceless piece of autobiography that has digressions (one of which about Jim Morrison). It may help to see at least a few of her films before going into this, but even if you only have a cursory knowledge of film history or Demy or what have you, it's still effective and affecting as a story that contains many stories and is about getting us to see the world as vibrantly and daringly as she does.

As life changes and the world goes through other developments, the beaches stay the same.

Agnes Varda, one of the most original women directors, bar none, is at it again. We were quite impressed by this film, which is not a biography, but in which Ms. Varda takes us on a tour of her life. She has always been admired for her films, but this account is almost a confession she makes to us, her audience. Islands have been a close subject for her, and so we are shown parts of her life where she has been closely tied to these places in the sea.

"Les plages d'Agnes" serves the director to take us along for a magical ride in which reveals some things that one never knew about her, as well as she goes over some parts of her life we already knew. Her life with Jacques Demy and their work is often seen at different moments of their distinguished careers. The revelation of her husband's death from AIDS must have weighed heavily on her. Such a vital man to succumb to that disease is hard to imagine and one can only feel for what Agnes went through in that ordeal.

In spite of her age, Agnes Varda shows an amazing amount of energy. She sets most of the narrative on a beach in which she lets her imagination go wild with the possibilities she can create from the elements she uses. She is also seen rowing on the Seine near the Pont Neuf, a bridge that she feels a connection to.

Some snippets of her big hits are shown, like the immensely satisfying "Cleo, from 5 to 7", and "Vagabund", just to mention two. She is kind to the artists she has enjoyed working with. She gave the great Phillipe Noiret his start in the French cinema. She is also generous to other people that have done great things in the French industry like, Resnais, Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard, Demy, and Rivette, among others.

Funny that Ms. Varda was born not in France, but in Belgium. She made her home in the country which welcomed her. There is a sequence in which we see her and her family doing a kind of a slow dance on a beach that has to be one of the most moving moments for this viewer. This film is highly recommended even for people that have not seen Ms. Varda's previous work. She wins us over just by being herself.

I normally run a mile away from anything tainted by the New Vave and the narrator/subject of this film certainly fits that description but the reports from all sides of the spectrum were so positive that I decided to give it a whirl and overall I'm glad I did. Okay, she may have been tainted by moving on the periphery of the new vaveleteers but against that she married Jacques Demy the onlie begetter of the magical Umbrellas of Cherbourg and its sequel The Young Girls of Rochefort so she can't be all bad. In fact she's mostly very good, certainly at this time of her life and she has come up with a gently lilting retrospective as melodic and bucolic as anything in her late husband's two musicals. Although she reflects on loss, death and melancholy she herself as well as her movie ultimately celebrate life. A fine film.