Movie of the month: Uncle Yanco (dir. Agnes Varda, 1967)

Image source: IMDB I’ve been going through the work of the great French filmmaker Agnes Varda this summer. While I was long familiar with her masterful features Cleo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond, the rest of Varda’s filmography has long lingered on my watchlist. While my schedule does not always allow me to fit in a feature film, the nice thing is that Varda made a lot of shorts over her sixty-plus year career. There are few things more pleasurable than starting the day with a cup of coffee and Varda. Of all the French New Wave masters, Varda feels the most approachable. Her work is intelligent without feeling obtuse or academic. That intellect is paired with a curiosity than can make any mundane subject feel magical and profound. Today’s subject Uncle Yanco is a great example of this quality. Ostensibly a record of Varda meeting a mysterious relative she’d never heard of before, it becomes something more over its eighteen minute runtime. Jean “Yanco” Varda was technically not Agnes’…