Agnès Varda was a visual storyteller who eschewed convention and prescribed approaches to drama. In Varda by Agnès , her final film, she offers a personal insight into her oeuvre, using excerpts from her work to illustrate her unique ideas and artistic vision. Playful and endearing, the film reveals the inimitable genius of a true icon of world cinema.

Among those in conversation in the film are Sandrine Bonnaire, who played Mona in Varda’s heart-breaking 1985 film Vagabond, the filmmaker and director of photography Nurith Aviv who shot for Varda on Daguerréotypes (1976), Jane B. for Agnès V. (1987) and Mur Murs (1981) and Hervé Chandès, General Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.

In her personal statement for Varda by Agnès, Varda said: “Three words are important to me: inspiration, creation, sharing. Inspiration is why you make a film. The motivations, ideas, circumstances and happenstance that spark a desire and you set to work to make a film. Creation is how you make the film. What means do you use? What structure? Alone or not alone? In colour or not in colour? Creation is a job. The third word is sharing. You don’t make films to watch them alone, you make films to show them.”

Full of illuminating wisdom, moving stories and amusing anecdotes, Varda by Agnès is an unmissable self-portrait of a talent with an uncompromising vision, a deep curiosity and empathy for other people – ‘real people’ she once said – and a spirited, life-affirming outlook. Newcomers to her work will enjoy it just as much as long-time fans.

Following its BFI theatrical release on 19 July, Varda by Agnès comes to DVD/Blu-ray on 4 November 2019, released in a Dual Format Edition for £22.99 and on BFI Player, iTunes and Amazon Prime. Extras include an illustrated talk filmed at BFI Southbank in July 2018 as part of a major Varda retrospective.

Special features:

• Agnès Varda in Conversation (2018, 83 mins): the legendary director gives an illustrated talk about her career to an audience at BFI Southbank. Recorded on 10 July 2018
• Agnès Varda: Filmmaker, Photographer, Instagrammer (2018, 12 mins): the veteran filmmaker and photographer explains how Instagram has become a favourite medium for her. Shot at the BFI Reuben Library in the summer of 2018
• Agnès Varda: Righteous Joy and Anger (2019, 8 mins): film critic and author, Amy Simmons, discusses some of Varda’s lesser-known films in this audiovisual essay
• Original theatrical trailer
• First pressing only: Illustrated booklet with essays by So Mayer and Isabel Stevens, a contemporary review, credits, notes on the extras and more