I often think about filmmakers around the world whose movies I consistently find enjoyable, and for that, I’m grateful to Agnès Varda. I owned her '4 Films by' Criterion boxed set for what felt like forever, but it remained unviewed, and I can’t really say why. Maybe I doubted whether her films would hold my interest; I don’t know. I certainly appreciate foreign, especially French, filmmaking. Perhaps the fact that she was a woman held me back, though I hope not, and I'm just being honest about it. Sometimes I feel uneasy when beginning to explore the work of a director who is different from myself—a female filmmaker, one who doesn’t speak English or come from a Caucasian background. Starting can be difficult for me because I worry that I won’t fully connect with their references and therefore won't be able to appreciate or enjoy the film as much as I should. Once I begin and watch that first film, things are fine. But getting started is genuinely tough. My university library had her two recent, highly-regarded films, 'The Gleaners and I' and its sequel, on a single DVD, and one of my favorite critics, Roger Ebert, wrote a ‘Great Movie’ piece about the original. So I watched that series, each film on a different night, and I grew to admire her as a person, realizing her films wouldn’t be difficult for me at all. After that, I tackled my previously intimidating boxed set, working through it in chronological order. This film, the second one in the set, was remarkable—essentially a real-time cinematic depiction of a woman waiting for biopsy results and considering how seriously her life might be affected. As I’ve noticed in all her films so far, there's an amazing visual style, a natural talent for storytelling, and you can really sense that Varda loves people and is happy to be alive—it comes through in everything she does. If you find yourself feeling the same way I did, hesitant about exploring Varda’s work, please don't delay any longer. Appreciate this extraordinary woman and her output while she’s still here; it will change you.

Source on TMDB