A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda made her first film in her twenties, before the French New Wave, with which she was long associated, began to crest; she made her last in her nineties, when she had lived long enough to witness (and help create) her transformation into a Frida-esque pop icon of feminist art. In between she lived a life of restlessly eclectic creativity (pushing the boundaries of true and made-up filmmaking and befriending the Black Panthers and Jim Morrison, among many others) and personal consistency (nearly her entire career was headquartered in a Montparnasse studio she bought when she was 23). Varda often played with time and identity in her work; in her first book (and the first Varda bio), Rickey, a longtime film critic, largely plays it straight, bringing order to a life overflowing with invention.