She was born in 1928, of a Greek father and a French mother. She spent her early childhood in Belgium and her adolescence in Sete, on the Mediterranean coast of France, then in Paris. She studied art history at the Ecole de Louvre, attended classes at the Sorbonne, and evening photography classes at the Ecole Vaugirard. She photographed the beginnings of Jean Vilar in Avignon, and later the troupe of the National Popular Theatre, which included Gerard Philipe, Jeanne Moreau, Charles Denner and others. She was commissioned by magazines for stories and portfolios in Spain, China and Cuba, and held her first individual exhibition in 1954 in a courtyard. The same year, she wrote and directed her first feature film, La pointe courte, which was also the first film for Philippe Noiret, without any training in film or technical knowledge of lenses. Because her film happened to be made four years before the French New Wave came crashing onto the scene, Varda was named "the Grandmother of the French New Wave". In 1961, she received the Melies Award for her film Cleo from 5 to 7, while, in 1964, she won the Siver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for her film Happiness. In 1985, her film Vagabond won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Varda has made a trilogy around Jacques Demy, her late husband, who died in 1990. She has two children and lives mostly in Paris, or wherever her films take her.

FILMOGRAPHY

The "cinecriture", of which I often speak, finds its absolute application in the documentary. The people I meet, the scenes I shoot, either alone or with a crew, the way I edit, in resonance or in counterpoint, the comments that accompany the images, the choice of music - all this is not the writing of a script, nor the style of directing, nor the words of a commentary. All this, and also chance, which is on my side, all this is the "cinecriture" of a film.