Les dites cariatides

In Paris, naked and semi-naked female bodies adorn the facades of stately buildings. They gracefully support entire balconies or decorative cornices on their heads. These neoclassical sculptures are known as caryatids.

Agnès Varda’s camera glides admiringly over the elegant, expertly sculpted bodies as her witty, associative voice-over explores their origins. The figures are said to be named after the enslaved women of the city of Karyes during the Greco-Persian Wars. Male versions also exist, but they are known as Atlases, and are muscular, with pained expressions.

The women, however, carry their burdens effortlessly, Varda observes, diving into her archives in search of photos of women balancing objects on their heads. Her associations also lead her to the poet Charles Baudelaire, who frequently celebrated female beauty in his work. His words seem made for these sculptures.