When Agnès Varda passed away, shamefully I’d not seen any of her films. Seeking to correct such an oversight, I sought out One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977; L’une chante, l’autre pas), a narrative that follows the friendship between two women, which comes to symbolise feminist movements of the 60s and 70s. As teenagers, Pauline (Valérie Mairesse), a choir singer living with her parents, is reacquainted with Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard) who has been shunned by her family for an affair with a married photographer, resulting in two children. An unfortunate situation and a tragedy occur, forcing the two women apart but they always think about each other. Meeting again ten years later at a protest rally for the legal right to abortion, they begin on-going communication via postcards and letters expressed in voice over narration. The film starts with the photographer’s solemn black and white portraits of women; Varda’s film answers that artistic mode by adding colour and dimension, drawing on documentary style for the casting of extras (who feel like real people) and the performance of certain scenes (Pauline’s feminist troupe of folk singers playing in country towns). I found it quite moving and liked it a good deal, particularly its episodic structure and its narrative trajectory to a utopian denouement. Sadly what might have been a document of a past era still feels very relevant today with its focus on abortion rights, single motherhood, sex positive independence and fundamental respect. There’s a Criterion Collection release of it if you have access.
VHS Tracking 