Agnes Varda, Auteur

Film still from Cleo from 5 to 7

Agnes Varda is one the featured Auteurs on Mubi (http://mubi.com/cast_members/1807) this year.  You can stream the filmmaker’s lifetime of experimental work for between $1 and $3 until May 2011.  Varda, who straddled the line of the French New Wave and the Rive Gauche styles of filmmaking, both elemental in the construction of modern film, was one of the only women recognized as an Auteur in the male dominated world of French film.  My personal favorite, Cleo from 5 to 7, is about a famous French singer who learns she might be terminally ill.  The narrative is given to the viewer in two hours of real time as Cleo walks the streets of Paris, meeting friends and strangers, and waiting to hear whether she will live or die.  Human emotion is examined through interaction with people and with the Parisian environment.  Like any good work of French art from 1962, Cleo from 5 to 7 considers the themes of existentialism, mortality, and despair.  But it’s not totally depressing– both Paris and Cleo are breathtakingly beautiful to look at.  For $3, Enjoy!   http://mubi.com/films/244