In this Agnes Varda-directed film, a collection of three of her shorts are combined. The shorts are SALUT LES CUBAINS from 1963, ULYSSES from 1982, and a new film called YDESSA, THE BEARS, AND ETC from 2004. Fascinating in the way that they show Varda's progression as a photographer and filmmaker, the films are artistic, personal, and moving. YDESSA, which is the first film in the trio, allows Varda to be a photography critic. She takes viewers to an art gallery in Munich where she analyzes an installation of found photographs by Ydessa Hendeles, a Canadian curator, eccentric, and teddy bear collector. With a shock of red-rinsed hair and a Goth fashion sense, Ydessa is a perfect subject for Varda to study on camera. Narrating with imaginative commentary and editing in bits of entertaining dialogue from Ydessa, she describes the project--which consists of thousands of photographs from 1930s Germany, each containing a teddy bear. The next segment, ULYSSES, deals with one of Varda's early photo compositions. It shows a man--Varda's former neighbor--standing naked on the beach, with a young boy seated next to him and a dead goat in the foreground. She recreates the photo in various ways, pulls it ...
