The Beaches of Agnès (2008) review

Ms. Varda, in her 80's and still spirited and creative, makes a sort-of autobiography covering snippets of her life and times: her involvement with the French New Wave, her relationship with Jacques Demy, her long-term friendships, her thoughts on the cinema, the ocean and time itself (and to press her on issues of memory is the inimitable Chris Marker ... in cat form, with a disguised voice). There is a lot of name dropping and parts of this do strike me as being overly sentimental (as hard as Varda tries to avoid doing just that) - it doesn't have the thematic 'weight' of, for example, The Gleaners & I - though her child-like playfulness keeps this one purring: setting up mirrors on the beach, filming gymnasts by the ocean, installing a makeshift sandbox (complete with phones, computers and receptionists) in the middle of a street. I don't like planned goodbyes in film, and much of this is self-conscious, though I hold out great hope she'll keep going well through her nineties. If Oliveira can do it....