Martin Kraft
Agnès Varda
FilmmakerKnown for:
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962); founding figure of the French New Wave
Education:
École du Louvre (art history); Sorbonne (literature); École des Beaux-Arts
Agnès Varda began the French New Wave ahead of her male contemporaries with La Pointe Courte (1955), a structurally experimental fiction film made independently in a fishing village. She continued making films across seven decades, moving toward documentary, installation, and self-portrait with a formal invention and warmth that distinguished her from any movement or school. She received an honorary Academy Award in 2017.
Agnès Varda's Gear List(1)
Bolex
Connection note
Varda used a Bolex H16 for early short films and documentary work; the camera's portability enabled her guerrilla filmmaking practice. Documented in retrospective accounts of her early career.
Product description
The Bolex H16 is a spring-wound 16mm film camera first produced in the 1930s and manufactured in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland for decades. Its mechanical simplicity, reliability, and optical quality made it the instrument of choice for avant-garde and experimental filmmakers. Jonas Mekas used one for decades of diary films; Stan Brakhage made most of his works with one.
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Last updated March 20, 2026
