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AFI Fest: Guest artistic director Agnes Varda selects four films

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Renowned French director Agnes Varda, who was named this month as the guest artistic director of the AFI Fest 2013, has selected a program of four eclectic movies to be screened at the festival, which runs Nov. 7-14 in Hollywood.

The 85-year-old Varda, who directed her first feature, “La Pointe Courte,” in 1955, has chosen films that have inspired her over the last six decades: Robert Bresson’s acclaimed 1959 drama “Pickpocket”; John Cassavetes’ 1974 drama “A Woman Under the Influence,” for which he and his wife, actress Gena Rowlands, both earned Oscar nominations; Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1979 drama “The Marriage of Maria Braun”; and Martin Scorsese’s nightmarish 1985 black comedy “After Hours.”

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The festival will also be screening a selection of films directed by Varda, the “Mother of the New Wave,” including restored versions of her seminal 1962 drama “Cleo from 5 to 7” and 1981’s “Documenteur,” which also stars her son Mathieu Demy.

Varda will be on hand to present and discuss her work at AFI Fest.

“It’s always good to be chosen, but it’s funny to be chosen to choose, therefore I immediately accepted the invitation from AFI to propose some films for their program,” Varda said in a statement.

“I chose ‘The Marriage of Maria Braun,’ one pearl of Fassbinder films, ‘Pickpocket’ by Bresson for its singular way of interpreting the art of stealing. As an hommage to two American directors, I chose Scorsese and Cassavetes. From Scorsese, ‘After Hours,’ a strange ephemeral nightmare beautifully treated, and from Cassavetes one of my favorite among all: ‘Woman Under the Influence,’ a delicate and complex portrait of a woman as well as of the people around her. Actually, to choose is always painful.”

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