Varda's Gift of Postcards

Abstract

Postcards are prominent throughout Varda’s oeuvre and she has displayed parts of her postcard collections on several occasions in her films and video installations. Her movie in which postcards play the most important narrative role is One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1976). As researchers in the field of postcard studies have pointed out, postcards are not only a means of communication, but also a sign of life or a confirmation of friendship, as well as a souvenir or a gift. The objective of this article is to reflect on how the self-contained episodes in some of Varda’s later non-fiction films, The Gleaners and I… Two Years Later (2002) and her five-part documentary Agnes Varda: From Here to There (2008-2011), can be regarded as a sign of friendship or as souvenir. And last but not least, whether and in what way could one also appreciate Varda’s films as a gift.