The Beaches of Agnès (2008) on Netflix

Plot summary

Agnès Varda, at nearly eighty, turns to her own memory and celebrates her birthday on camera. She returns to a beach in Belgium she visited as a young girl, bringing mirrors with her; in the opening shots one mirror rests on the sand while a wave washes over it. Old photographs of friends, collaborators, lovers and family sit beside clips and home movies, alongside present-day interviews and scenes she arranges to capture a mood or a period. She traces a childhood in Belgium, years in Sète, Paris and Noirmoutier, the discovery of photography and the making of a film. She speaks of the children she raised with Jacques Demy and of growing old, and calls memory a swarm of confused flies.