`Beaches of Agnes' a delightful journey.

Byline: Jeffrey Long

COLUMN: MOVIE REVIEW

The title of this engaging retrospective on the life of film director Agnes Varda refers to the grounding and restorative effects that seacoasts have had for her through her 80 years. A boat woman better known as the "grandmother of the New Wave," Varda expertly navigates between the many shoals that could sink any memoir - such as pomposity, false modesty, yielding to maudlin sentiment, distortion or omission of fact, or outright tedium for the audience.

Instead, with warmth, humility and largesse, she invites us along on a delightful if discursive journey. Through the use of photos, anecdotes, colorful conversations, and cuts from some of her award-winning films, she introduces us to the people, places, and events that have defined and enriched her life.

The beginning of this lively documentary is as unconventional as it is appropriate. We see Agnes directing some young people in the arranging of mirrors and picture frames on a beach of her native land, Belgium. At one point, three narrow mirrors stand adjacent to one another. In their angled panels, we glimpse Varda's figure in triplicate, as though she were trying on the seascape for size.

Varda tells us that in her girlhood she was attracted to Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." Perhaps this was because, even then, she intuited that all art is necessarily unfinished, because it has been created by imperfect human hands.

So it is that what we see here projected onto the movie screen seems more like organic tissue than lifeless celluloid. For instance, the film's static opening credits evolve into palpable persons whose names we hear and whose faces we see.

Also, quirky narrative offshoots spontaneously grow away from the movie's main stem of straight chronology. There are satisfying digressions in which we meet individuals whose lives have no connection to the entertainment industry or Varda's blood relations, but who have found meaning in, for example, the ardent collecting of toy trains or the joyful cultivating of a 45-year romance. There also are passing references to such diverse talents she has known as Jim Morrison, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Calder.

With a curious combination of bemused affection and emotional detachment, she tours her childhood home with us. Later, she dips into her memories of living as an adolescent on a sailboat during World War II.

She tells of mending nets with fishermen in her youth, before gravitating to the related worlds of art, photography and cinema.

We learn, too, of her love of flea markets as a source of found art for her movie craftwork.

We sense the giddiness of Varda's newfound celebrity, with the cascade of accolades that rained down on her with the release of her breakthrough film "Cleo from 5 to 7."

She also speaks of the idyllic and productive years spent with her husband, director Jacques Demy, including their migration to Southern California during the tumultuous 1960s.

Although this autobiographical excursion could be seen as a fitting capstone to a brilliant career, in a sense one wishes this not to be so.

For, though Schubert did not live to complete his symphony, we can only hope that Agnes Varda's work of genius is a long way from the finish line.

"The Beaches of Agnes" will be shown in Room 320, Jefferson Academic Center, Clark University, at 7:30 Thursday and Saturday, and 1 and 3:10 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $5.50 adults, $3.50 seniors and Clark students, faculty and staff (with ID).

The Beaches of Agnes

* * * *

A Cine Tamaris production

Rating: not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Key to the Stars

* * * * ... Hot Stuff

* * * ... Good Job

* * ... Not Bad

* ... Never Mind

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Director Agnes Varda, in a scene from "Beaches of Agnes."