“The portrait that you escape from”: Reassemblages of the subject in Agnès Varda’s Elsa la Rose (1966)
Abstract
This paper aims to study Agnès Varda’s short film Elsa la Rose (1966) as a portraiture operation in which the filmmaker seeks to understand how the image of writer and translator Elsa Triolet is constructed in the literary works of her husband, the poet Louis Aragon. Based on an analysis of the film's editing techniques, the essay seeks to understand how the work creates a fragmentary portrait of Elsa, shaped by historical events and the imaginative powers of her portrayer, Aragon, reinterpreting the poet's verses through the interplay with archival images, off-screen narration, and the repetition of images.
References
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Filmografia
Daguerréotypes [longa-metragem, 16mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris; INA; ZDF, França, 1975. 80 min.
Documenteur [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris, EUA/França, 1981. 63 min.
Elsa la Rose [curta-metragem, 16mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris; Pathé-Cinema; Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, França, 1965. 20 min.
Jacquot de Nantes [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris, França, 1990. 118 min.
Jane B. par Agnès V. [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris; La Sept, França, 1987. 97 min.
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer. Société Générale des Films, França, 1928. 82 min.
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Jacques Demy. Parc Film; Madeleine Films, França, 1967. 120 min.
L’Opéra-Mouffe [curta-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris, França, 1958.
L’Univers de Jacques Demy [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris, França, 1995. 80min.
Le Bonheur [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris; Parc-Film, França, 1965, 82 min
Les Créatures [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Parc Film; Madeleine Films, França, 1966. 105min.
Mayerling [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Anatole Litvak. Nero-Film, França, 1936. 95 min.
Oncle Yanco [curta-metragem, 16mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris, EUA/França, 1967. 22 min.
Sans toit ni loi [longa-metragem, 35mm]. Dir. Agnès Varda. Ciné-Tamaris; Films A2, França, 1985. 105 min.
