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The 'Grandmother' on the New Wave
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11577 |
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THE ARTS
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9 / 1986 |
1,446 Words |
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Debra Wishik
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Agnes Varda has a worldwide reputation; she's referred to in cinema classes as the "grandmother of French New Wave," although her first film, La Pointe Courte, was made in 1954, five years prior to the start of the new filmmaking style. Varda, originally a photographer, makes both features and documentaries, including one, Far From Vietnam (1967), which expressed her protest of the American involvement in Vietnam. She even made a commercial for French television advocating freedom of choice and the right of women to have an abortion. Her films often debut at film festivals, and are publicized by extensive controversy.
Her latest feature, Vagabond, has already broken box office records in her native France, where it won the 1985 Best Picture Award of the French Critics Union; the 1985 Cesar Award for Best Actress; and the first prize at last year's Venice Film Festival. Varda readily admits some concern about the Americans reaction to Vagabond, explaining: "It could disturb audiences here who like a beginning, middle, and end. It really is a puzzle with some, but not all, of the pieces provided."
It is the structure of the film that makes the story unique. The opening shot is of bare trees blowing in the winter wind. The accompanying music is foreboding, the sense of death potent. Then we see a young, disheveled woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), who is hitchhiking despite the cold weather. Soon Mona is dead. A worker finds her body in a ditch. The remainder of the film consists of flashbacks to Mona's time on the road. The story isn't told from her point of view but rather from that of people she met along the way - other vagabonds, a farmer who tried to help her, an agronomist who befriended her briefly, a boyfriend, a mechanic, and others. All these people talk about Mona as if they had been asked by the authorities to recall what happened when they met her.
The ending of Vagabond takes us full circle - Mona is dead. But there isn't definite conclusion to the film; it is ambivalent because of the many unanswered questions. Mona is portrayed as a young woman on the road; she has no family and no plans for the future. She lives by her wits and the kindness of the people she meets; she will sleep on the cold ground if someone will give her stale bread. She's not a likeable character. Initially sympathies are with her but fade because she's rude, ungrateful, and so aimless. No reasons are given for her life as a drifter, and therefore her imposition on others brings on feelings of limited patience. These mixed signals are precisely what Varda intended. She states firmly, "This is not five dollars’ worth of entertainment but rather questioning entertainment."
Financing of the film was peculiar to Varda and probably impossible in most countries. She didn't have enough money and went to the French ministry of culture and asked for money on the basis of two pages of script. Varda insists that this was sufficient. "There's no need for a long script. It said: girl alone, dirty, a rebel on the road in France, a vagabond with a backpack, not speaking, not smiling, a girl who no past who needs bread and water. And then the story is told through the eyes of other people and how they reacted to her." Varda has thirty years of filmmaking experience and feels no need to spell out all the details on paper. She admits that her reputation got her the money. She feels it was a gamble but says proudly she's able to repay the ministry because the film is
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