"An enthralling new biography... Fervently detailed and briskly narrated." -- Richard Brody - The New Yorker "I devoured 'A Complicated Passion' happily and so, I suspect, will you. It sent me rushing to the Criterion Channel to rewatch Varda's movies." -- Dwight Garner - The New York Times "A landmark achievement, this deeply engrossing biography of Agnčs Varda, the first ever in the English language, fills a major gap in film history, chronicling the life and career of one of world cinemas most gifted writer-directors. Carrie Rickeys brisk, jaunty style lends itself perfectly to her peripatetic and multitalented subject." -- Noah Isenberg, film historian and best-selling author of We'll Always Have Casablanca "Finally, the definitive biography of a filmmaker whose place in the cinematic pantheon keeps ascending. Carrie Rickeys writing is vivid and colorful, her judgments judicious and astute, her research impeccable, and she captures Agnčs Vardas spirit, her achievement, her uniqueness in the very act of analyzing her. One could not ask for a smarter or more engaging take on the subject." -- Phillip Lopate, editor of the Library of America's American Movie Critics "Agnčs Varda possessed an almost superhuman degree of talent and hustle, and as Carrie Rickey vividly shows in A Complicated Passion, she would need it all to make her way in a mans world. Rickeys portrait is an enthralling blend of personal and contextual history, stylistic analysis, penetrating insights into the films, a humming awareness of the electric combination of Varda and her husband, director Jacques Demyall during the most exciting and innovative period of French cinema. This is biography and film scholarship at their combined bestthe irresistible story of an indomitable woman!" -- Molly Haskell, film critic and author of Frankly, My Dear
