Ô saisons ô chateaux

After making her first feature "La Pointe-Courte", Agnès Varda was offered a commission to make a tourism short about the castles of the Loire Valley. She initially balked at the idea, but Alain Resnais convinced her to take the job saying that she would find her "own little music" in the subject matter.

Indeed she does. Although the film does take us through all the castles of the region in the order that they were built and provide their history, it also focuses on the gardens, the gardener, locals and many other things. It's an exquisitely shot and playful short, that I confess eventually wore out it's welcome a bit, but really only because I have very little interest in the actual castles.