From the Perspective of the Self: Varda's Aesthetics and Politics of Self-Portrayal

Towards the end of her career Varda's work became more overtly autobiographical culminating in her self-described auto-portrait, Les Plages d’Agnès (2008). This talk will focus on Varda's means of reshaping canonic modes of self-representation, such as autobiography, self-portrait or autofiction in accordance with her artistic practice. This film doesn't solely feature essential aspects of her audiovisual vocabulary; it is also a prime example of how the innovative narrative and non-narrative strategies she developed throughout her career laid the ground for the postmodern representation of the self.

Dominique Blüher is Lecturer at the University of Chicago. She has organized two residencies, retrospectives and exhibitions of Agnès Varda at Harvard and at the University of Chicago, and is currently preparing a large monographic exhibition of Varda's multimedia installations. Her writings on French film theory, French cinema and autobiographical films have appeared in many books and journals. She coedited two anthologies on French non-fiction short films of the 1950s and 1960s and is working on two books related to autobiography and cinema.

Scientific Organization: Susanne Watzenboeck