The legendary, lovely Agnès Varda has passed away at the age of 90. The French New Wave pioneer died from cancer “at her home in the night of March 29, 2019, surrounded by her family and friends,” her family confirmed. She recently premiered her final film Varda by Agnès at Berlinale, on the heels of both an honorary Academy Award and her Oscar-nominated documentary Faces Places.
Born in Ixelles, Belgium in 1928, she began her creative career in 1948 as a photographer before moving into filmmaking in 1954 prior to the beginning of the French New Wave. From her first feature La Pointe Courte all the way through Varda by Agnès, the director has had a uniquely playful eye when it comes to the cinematic form, from her landmark films Cléo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur, and Vagabond to her immensely inventive and heartfelt documentaries like The Gleaners and I and The Beaches of Agnès.
This century, she also expanded her work, becoming a visual artist at the Venice Biennale and her work has been show in in Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, MoMA in New York, Paul Valéry Museum in Sète, Fondation Bernard Magrez in Bordeaux, FRAC of Lorraine, CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, Hubei Art Museum in Wuhan, LACMA in Los Angeles, and more.
As we remember her incredible career, take a look back at some highlights below: