I love the way she has two voiceovers — there’s the main one, who waxes lyrical about all these things at the Côte d’azur, and then there’s another voice that softly tells you where each shot is from… it’s kinda hypnotic.

Woolen bathing trunks!? Itchy!

Er… Dream… Hill?! That’s can’t be right.

Anyway, this is a lovely short. Beautiful shots and amusing, whimsical takes on being at the French riviera.

Hm… perhaps I should go there this winter…

Du côté de la côte. Agnès Varda. 1958. ⚅

Heh, I’m now watching the DVD extras — both this one and the previous short were financed by the Tourist Office. And they’re effective ads! I want to go all these places she’s been! Money well spent, Tourist Office!

Restored… and digitised! My French is getting so french.

Is that the most French tableau ever?

Untrue!

This is a wonderful short — they’re basically showing us all these fabulous French castles, and the voiceover talks about how they were created and what their significance are — but the movie doesn’t really explain why it exists. It just seems so random and whimsical: It’s a series of gorgeous shots of gorgeous castles with gorgeous models modelling in front of them — but why?

It’s mysterious. And great. I want visit all these castles.

Ó saisons, ó châteux. Agnès Varda. 1958. ⚅

This is a short included on the first disc in the Criterion Varda box set… and it’s the only thing listed (except the main feature), but there’s a whole bunch of documentaries included, too. It’s like a cornucopia, but it’s gonna take months to watch the box if all disks are like this.

Varda uses CGI extensively here…

The performances are fine, but the whimsy seems forced, and it seems more like a way to play with CGI elements than anything else.

Les 3 boutons. Agnès Varda. 2015. ⚂