Given the complexity of the editing, the script, the essay, the veritee situations, the technical limitations of that period and the amount of films Agnes was shooting in a row, to come up with something like this... wow.

Agnes Varda presents a loving view at the shop-owners of her street with much care for their everyday lives, their biographies and a keen eye for detail.

Daguerréotypes (1976) was written and directed by Agnès Varda.

The movie gives us portraits of the people that occupy the small shops of the Rue Daguerre, in Paris, where the filmmaker lived. Rue Daguerre is in the 14th arrondissement. It is, indeed, named in honor of Louis Daguerre, the inventor of one of the earliest photographic techniques. Photographs made using this process are called daguerreotypes, so Varda's title has a double meaning. Her film is a photographic image of the street on which she lived, which was named after someone who made photographic images possible.

Although I think Rue Daguerre is more touristic now, in 1976 it was a residential street filled with small shops. Some of the shops were basic--a bakery, a butcher shop. But some were more specialized, like a perfumery. The shops are run by middle-aged couples--the classic French bourgeoisie.

Varda brings us into these shops, where the people know her and where they apparently talk very freely with her. To an outsider, they're just people who run a shop. To Varda, they are all people with an interesting story to tell. They tell her their stories, and she shares them with us.

This is movie in which not much happens, and there really isn't any plot. The film is a documentary about a time, a place, and the people who lived at that time in that place. Varda is a talented filmmaker who saved that time, that place, and those people for us to see. Her talent shines through, even 40 years later.

We saw Daguerréotypes at the excellent Dryden Theatre in the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. It was part of an Agnès Varda retrospective, sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology and the Eastman Museum. It will work very well on a small screen.