His home pastel pink form like a soft enclave in the top of the rue Daguerre, Paris (XIVe). It is here, in this poetic space, surrounded by his family, that the director is emblematic of the New wave became extinct as the result of cancer in the night from Thursday to Friday. In front of his house, at 86 street, the epicentre of a small business, where she entremêlait constantly life and work, a few anonymous, admirers or neighbors come to gather and place a few bouquets of flowers. As well as words, for her and for her family.
from time To time, the door opens. Rosalie Varda, his eldest daughter, opens up to friends and family who came to pay tribute to the director of Cleo from 5 to 7, a pioneer of the revolution in cinematography, French 1960s. Rosalie, who watches for many years on the work of his mother, a sketch of shy smiles to onlookers and residents of the Montparnasse.
«It was solar and was always of gentleness»
in Front of the home of the Rue Daguerre, the flowers start to accumulate. Alexander, Bernard/ Le Figaro
«She represented a whole era that is in the process of shutting down little by little,» says Karine, a resident of the district, by the filing of a bouquet of flowers at the foot of the door of Agnès Varda. «I’d often see her look for her cat. She often went to the bakery and ask them if they had not seen it,» she continued. Emotion has won the bakery where the artist had his habits. She went there two to three times per week to buy his favorite bread, the «bread of the pres»! «We were delighted to have her as a client», remember the employees of the Bakery Daguerre.
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in Front of his home, a man, the eyes reddened by the emotion, is leaning against a planter, upset by the death the filmmaker of a thousand rewards. Rose and Benjamin, two young people of twenty years, the inhabitants of the street and cruised routinely Agnès Varda. «It was solar and was always mild, remembers the young woman of 25 years. She walked always slowly with a person, which helped in particular to wear his races. It was calm and not at all ‘star’. She was a citizen, an inhabitant of the Fourteenth and above all very cute.»
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Right next to the bookstore, Bubble lounge, the employee, explains that especially cross-Agnès Varda at the time of the festivals of end of the year. «I saw at Christmas. She came to find books for her grandchildren, she was very nice and sweet,» he recalls.
A little further down, at the corner of the Street Roger, the boss of the small brewery, The Once, full-service, takes the time to give a few anecdotes. «We knew it well! Before being known, it was especially a neighbor! She didn’t eat with us, but it was especially in the tobacco to buy his tickets to the subways, its stamps and its newspapers, says Julien. I’ve always seen in the neighborhood and before me my parents, too, remembers the trader of 35 years.»
«For her, the neighborhood was always important»
Daguerreotypes , pride of the neighborhood
Benjamin tells of being transported by the melancholy Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), the song Without you , composed by Michel Legrand, has upset the young man every time he listens. Alain and Myrta, retirees who have learned of the death of the director, passing by chance in the neighborhood, evokes The Marauders and the mound building (2000), but also Black Panthers (1968), a documentary short film that told the Oakland protests around the trial of Huey Newton.
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But to the inhabitants of the district, when it comes to retain a single work of the filmmaker, all are unanimous: Daguerreotypes . Made in 1975, Daguerreotypes is a documentary film. Interviewed by France 3 in 2014, Agnes Varda described it thus: « Daguerreotypes is not a film about the rue Daguerre, This is a film about a small piece of the rue Daguerre, between the n°70 and n°90, it is a document so modest and locally on the silent majority, this is an album neighborhood, they are portraits in stereo-daguerréotypés, this is an archive for the archeo-sociologists of the year 2975.»
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For the local residents, the long-feature film is still the pride of the borough. This is particularly the case of Julien’s Past. «His feature-length film brought back a lot of people and it’s not badly marked the neighbourhood,» says the restaurateur of 35 years who took over the business from his parents. For her, the neighborhood was always important. She invested a lot.»
The inhabitants of the Rue Daguerre, say they are orphans of this woman whom they all describe as «discreet, accessible and simple». Many are hopeful that it will be based not far from there, in Montparnasse cemetery, where rests already the love of his life, Jacques Demy.