Agnes Varda

AGNES VARDA is often called the mother of the French New Wave, the loose collective of filmmakers who galvanized international cinema in the '60s and whose ranks included Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Varda's late husband, Jacques Demy. Not only was Varda a virtually lone female voice in this boys' club, her emergence actually predated theirs by several years.

'Agnes Varda Shorts' France, 1982-86, 65 minutes , 7:30 p.m . Collection of short subjects by film maker Agnes Varda. Not screened at press time.

1--"Hannah and Her Sisters" (U.S., Woody Allen). 2--"Blue Velvet" (U.S., David Lynch). 3--" 'Round Midnight" (U.S., Bertrand Tavernier). 4--"Platoon" (U.S., Oliver Stone). 5--"Room With a View" (England, James Ivory). 6--"Mona Lisa" (England, Neil Jordan). 7--"Betty Blue" (France, Jean-Jacques Beineix). 8--"My Beautiful Laundrette" (England, Stephen Frears). 9--"Stand By Me" (U.S., Rob Reiner). 10--"Vagabond" (France, Agnes Varda).

Near the beginning of this 1993 release, which is French director Agnes Varda's enchanting tribute to her late husband, director Jacques Demy, Varda tells us that Demy's "childhood was his treasure and the source of inspiration for his films." She aptly describes her film as "an evocation"--a biography of Demy's early years in Nantes in western France on the Loire River.

French director Agnes Varda's movie about a vagabond girl, "Sans Toit Ni Loi" ("Without a Roof or Law"), won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. The jury awarded a special grand prize, equivalent to second place, to "Tangos--El Exilio de Gardel," an Argentine film directed by Fernado Solanas that traces the life of tango singer and composer Carlos Gardel. Gerard Depardieu was chosen best actor for his tough-guy performance in the French movie, "Police."

AMERICAN FILMS (in alphabetical order) Atlantic City (Louis Malle) Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen) Choose Me (Alan Rudolph) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman) Diner (Barry Levinson) Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen) The Killing Fields (Roland Joffe) Once Upon a Time in America (uncut version) (Sergio Leone) Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese) Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch) Tootsie (Sydney Pollack) HONORABLE MENTION The