The retrospective of Agnès Varda‘s films that we have enjoyed for the last month at the local cinematheque gave us the opportunity to see the digitally reconditioned version of her wonderful 1985 film ‘Sans toit ni loi‘ (English title is ‘Vagabond’). The coincidence makes it possible in the same period to watch the retrospective of Wim Wenders, one of the ‘road movies’ masters. Agnès Varda also approached her, but not as programmatic and dedicated as Wenders did. ‘Sans toit ni loi‘ can also be seen as a ‘road movie’, a geographical road that the main heroine travels in a countryside region of France, a personal road which takes to the abyss.
Agnes Varda’s films have the qualities of using original and interesting narrative formulas. The director knows how to tell a story, but her style is rarely conventional. She likes to experiment, but her innovations serve the narrative and highlight the personality of the heroes of her film (women in most cases). ‘Sans toit ni loi’ begins as a detective story. Somewhere, in a winter landscape, near a vineyard, a young girl’s body is found. Police begin to do their job, make measurements, collect forensic evidence, ask those who have found the body questions. It is clear, however, that it is a trivial case, accidental death or perhaps due to the cold weather. The victim seems to be a vagabond, a person of no interest. The case will be closed quickly. Here comes the director and takes over the ‘investigation’. What follows is the reconstitution of the last months of a young woman’s life, months of wandering without purpose, slipping into misery, a journey that has only one possible end. How did she remain in the memory of those who met her? Who was she in reality?
The story triggers multiple questions in the mind of the audience. How much attention do we pay to the people we meet? How many times do we overcome our first impression when meeting strangers based on how they look? Do we even care who they, do we want to know those with whom we cross ways? Then, thinking about the story the movie, who is this girl, what brought her on the roads, what are the sources of her inappropriateness not only to social norms, but also to herself? Many young people take the path of vagabondage, sometimes they do it in protest, but in the case of Mona (the heroine played by Sandrine Bonnaire) we have no sure answer even after the end of the film. The interpretation of the young French actress at the beginning of her career is exceptional, she creates a character that the film’s viewers will hardly forget. The cast includes many non-professional actors playing a full range of roles, a puzzle of humanity and empathy in a world at the outskirts of society – people who work hard, ageing and lonely people, immigrant workers, young vagabonds. The cinematography is also special. Color also plays an important role in this film, as in other films by Agnès Varda. This time the palette is the one of the colors of autumn and later of winter, and the way they are brought onto the screen creates the physical sensation of the cold and the vacuum between the characters and around them. ‘Sans toit ni loi‘ is a movie of a vibrant sensitivity in which the cinematographic techniques of the New French Wave meet at the highest level with the social acuity of Italian Neo-realism. Strongly recommended!