definite, its meaning less so. Varda looked at the photo from time to time
over the following decades and was compelled eventually to turn her
fascination into the filmUlysse, in 1982. In it she offers several approaches
to the image. First she explores how it marked her transition from photo-
grapher to filmmaker. Then she takes the photo as a document belonging
less to her personally than to history. Varda researches national and
world events that happened the month she took the photo, but none
seems to have any bearing on it. She goes in search of the two people.
The man, Fouli Elia, was a model in 1954. By 1982 he was a director of
photography atEllemagazine. Varda contacts him, but he is not interested
in remembering. The boy, Ulysse, is the son of Spanish refugees who were 107
95 Agnès Varda,Ulysse(1954). Black and
white photograph.