Reflected Reflexivity in Jane B. par Agnès V.

Very little critical attention has been paid to Jane B. par Agnès V. (1987), the first of Agnès Varda's films in which she renders representation, the artistic process, and the artist apparent and observable by incorporating her own body in the film.1 By underscoring her role as the filmmaker, she shows how she films: she reveals her camera, sometimes the sets of the film, and explains why she makes certain artistic decisions. Varda enacts the way she works for the spectator, which in turn gives visibility to female creativity. The inclusion of her own body and reflection on the craft of filmmaking in 1987 is particularly significant, since this film precedes contemporary digital versions of this phenomenon, including her own Les glaneurs et la glaneuse in 2000.