Today I spoke to Agnes Varda in the street in my neighborhood. This is incredible. I knew she lived around here, but I've been to her store and I've wandered around Denfert Rochereau and I've never seen her. So, today I finally went to see "Les Plages d'Agnes," her movie that's been playing at the Denfert cinema forever. A friend told me she sometimes introduces the movie, so I looked around the cinema from the balcony hoping to spot an old woman with two-toned hair. No dice.
The movie was good. She had a lot of locations in the neighborhood, so on the way home, I wandered down Rue Daguerre, where I passed her house (used in the movie!) -- it's right across the street from her store. I stopped for a moment in front of it, thinking how maybe I could camp out at the cafe across the street and wait to see her, when I turned around and there she was! Coming out of her store to cross the street to come home. I stared at her awkwardly, and then we had a conversation:
Me: You're Agnes Varda?
Agnes Varda: Yes.
Me: I just saw your movie!
AV: Which one?
Me: "The Beaches of Agnes"!
AV: Where?
Me: At Denfert.
AV: Did you like it?
Me: Yes!
AV: We're right in front of the courtyard in that movie, you know.
At this point I felt like I should probably head home, so I turned around to do just that, when:
AV: How many people were there?
Me: What?
AV: How many people were there? 5? 10?
Me: Ten.
AV: (in the cutest way possible) Oh, c'est sympa!
Then I headed home and she went into her house. I smiled at everyone on the walk home.
And I did not get the gender of film wrong.
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AH! This is SO adorable :) I love that Agnes cares how many people were at her film...
ReplyDeleteJust watched Cleo de 5 a 7 and thought of this and you. Oh how I wish I could be in Paris again bumping into Agnes...
I know right? I was just happy she would engage with a random person on the street, and that she would would be happy 10 people showed up. She´s very cute and short and I still can´t really believe this actually happened... Cleo de 5 a 7 is such a good movie. It´s my favorite, actually, and only thanks to French Cinema with Martine Gantrel at Smith. Oh French New Wave... pretty good but Agnes is the best.
ReplyDeleteI´m home in a little over a week, but Paris says hello!