Every time I watch an Agnes Varda movie that is new to me – though already heralded a great one by critics and friends – I’m left thinking, “Why am I not watching more of Varda’s movies all the time?” Vagabond (1985; the French title is Sans toit ni loi, which translates to “with neither shelter nor law”) is a drama about Mona, a young woman played by Sandrine Bonnaire, who is discovered dead and frozen in a field in the French countryside in the opening moments. Presented in a documentary style, the film alternates between scenes of people who encountered Mona, talking about her as well as their own lives, and narrative scenes where we follow Bonnaire’s performance as the defiant, resourceful drifter. She sleeps in a tent wherever she can find a spot, earns money by doing cash-in-hand jobs, and talks to people on the road with an eye for a cigarette to take or some shelter for a moment. Bonnaire is arresting in her performance – even if we don’t know everything about her past and why she has chosen this drifter life, we can read her state of mind sometimes with the people and situations she falls into, the moments of connection, and then the moments of boredom whenever rules or orders are placed upon her. I think what I loved about the film was how Varda offers empathy to everyone depicted, allowing background characters to talk to the camera occasionally, peek into other lives, all the while maintaining a focus on Mona’s character. Yet even though Varda’s approach is empathetic, it is still critical of the social structures in place, the inequalities against women, lower class people, immigrant workers. Its eyes are wide open, even as it conveys a sense of sadness around this person’s eventual end – it is not necessarily a tragedy if this is the way she wanted to live, free and on her own terms – the film is open to the contradiction and the different reactions people will have to her. I also just emotionally connected to Mona’s need to turn on a radio whenever she could and have a pop song play in the background. Available to stream on Mubi as part of their Agnes Varda collection. Recommended.
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