French director Agnes Varda dead at 90

Paris, March 30 (IANS) Legendary French filmmaker Agnes Varda has died after battling breast cancer. She was 90.Varda's spokesperson from her production company, Cine-Tamaris confirmed the news of her demise, informing that she breathed her last on Friday here, New York Times reported.She was popular for films like "Cleo from 5 to 7" and "Vagabond". Her 2001 documentary "The Gleaners and I" is considered one of her masterpieces. In the film, she used the themes of collecting, harvesting and recycling to reflect on her own work.Even at the age of 89, she was working. In her last project, she was partnering with French photographer and muralist JR on "Faces Places" a road movie that featured the two of them roaming around rural France, meeting the locals, celebrating them with enormous portraits and forming their own fast friendship.For her contribution to cinema, Varda was awarded an honorary Oscar and the Governors Award in 2017.Talking about her style of filmmaking, Varda had earlier said: "I just didn't see films when I was young. I was stupid and naive. Maybe I wouldn't have made films if I had seen lots of others; maybe it would have stopped me.""I started totally free and crazy and innocent. Now I've seen many films, and many beautiful films. And I try to keep a certain level of quality in my films. "I don't do commercials, I don't do films pre-prepared by other people, I don't do star system. So I do my own little thing," she had said.
--IANS sim/in/bg