Agnès Varda‘s retrospective at the local cinema gave me the opportunity to watch for the first time ‘One Sings, the Other Doesn’t‘ (the original title in French is ‘L’une chante l’autre pas’). The story in this film takes place in the France of the ’60s and’ 70s, which is presented by the militant director Agnes Varda from a feminine perspective, a world in which women are the center of attention, the heroines of the story and of the society. A beautiful movie, at the end of which the spectator, if not already a feminist, has good chances to become one.
The heroines of the film, Suzanne and Pauline, meet in the early 1960s in Paris. Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard) is a few years older, and is in a relationship with a photographer, talented but unable to support the family that already has two young children. Pauline (Valérie Mairesse), still a rebellious high school student blessed with the gift of singing, will help her get rid of a third unwanted pregnancy. After the tragic death of Suzanne, the heroines’ roads split. Suzanne is forced to return to her parents in a remote village, Pauline (also called Pomme – Apple) will follow her vocation and especially her thirst for freedom by becoming the singer. They will meet again 12 years later on the barricades of the fights for the right of choice on abortions. From now on their life stories are presented in parallel, in a combination of off-voice read fragments of long, but never written letters. Each of the two will meet a man, but the men in Varda’s films never seem to be quite adequate. Neither the medical doctor Suzanne meets, nor the Iranian economist (Darius – Ali Rafie) who will fall in love with Pomme, are exceptions. The connection between Pomme and Darius provides the opportunity of a secondary action thread, a slightly Orientalist love story between the French liberated woman and the Iranian man, which will include for Pomme the cultural shock of a trip to Iran in 1976.
From the perspective of the over 40 years since ‘One Sings, the Other Doesn’t‘ was made, it is extremely interesting to watch the fight of heroines for the right to decide on their own destiny and the encounter between the two so different cultures, the French and the Iranian – and we are still two years before Islam came to power in Iran!. Both themes are still very actual. The beauty of the film comes from different places. First of all, I loved the passion, the warmth and the empathy with which the female universe is built, the world where the stories of the two women take place, the relationship of friendship and trust that flourishes between them at the beginning and resists all the challenges that the two of them have to face. Their interpretations are also remarkable, especially the one of Valérie Mairesse who was 20-21 years old when the film was filmed. The part of the composition in her role was actually the one in which she plays a woman in her 30s. She is wonderful. The digital remastering is excellent. Agnes Varda herself has the chance to lead the process and that not only saves films from inherent destruction on film format and promises a longer lifetime in the future, but also emphasizes the colors that play an important role in her films. ‘One Sings, the Other Doesn’t‘ is a movie that deserves to be seen for many reasons and has the chances of being enjoyed today at least as much as 43 years ago.