La Pointe Courte (1954) - (Movie Clip) We're From Good Stock

La Pointe Courte (1954) -- (Movie Clip) He's Never Been Sick

A startling sequence from director Agnès Varda, who claimed to have seen almost no feature films at the time, and certainly none of the Italian neorealist titles which might seem pertinent, as tragedy strikes an unmarried mother of seven, all with non-professional actors, working in the fishing village for which the film is named, in La Pointe Courte, 1954.

La Pointe Courte (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Out By The Fig Tree

The opening from director Agnès Varda’s first feature, working on location in the neighborhood for which the film is named, in the city of Sète on the Western French Mediterranean coast near where Varda once lived, featuring for now only uncredited actors, “les habitants de La Pointe-Courte,” in La Pointe Courte, 1954.

La Pointe Courte (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Board Of Health!

Still featuring only her uncredited actors, the real “habitants de La Pointe-Courte,” director Agnès Varda observes as Anna, Uncle Jules, Grandma and Grandpa confront the sneaky health inspectors about the shellfish catch, early in the New Wave progenitor, La Pointe Courte, 1954.

La Pointe Courte (1955) on The Essentials -- (Movie Promo)

Promoting Agnès Varda’s La Pointe Courte, 1955, on TCM’s The Essentials, introduced by Ava DuVernay and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz, Saturday, June 15th at 8pm ET.

La Pointe Courte (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Quai Du Mistral

Director Agnès Varda, who before making this first feature had worked primarily as a professional photographer, gradually introduces her second story line with her only two paid actors, Philippe Noiret and Silvia Montfort, as a troubled Parisian couple visiting his hometown, shooting on location on the Mediterranean coast, in La Pointe Courte, 1954.