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Vagabond (1985 film)
Vagabond (French: Sans toit ni loi, "with neither shelter nor law") is a 1985 French drama film directed by Agnès Varda, featuring Sandrine Bonnaire. It tells through flashbacks the story of a vagabond who wanders through the Languedoc-Roussillon wine country one winter, beginning after her body is found. The film premiered at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion. Vagabond was nominated for four César Awards, with Bonnaire winning Best Actress. The film was the 36th highest-grossing film of the year with a total of 1,080,143 admissions in France.[2] PlotThe film begins with the contorted body of a young woman, Mona, lying in a frost-covered ditch, beneath two twin cypress trees, in the vineyards of a small village in the Gard region. The discovery is initially treated as a simple case, quickly dismissed by the local gendarmes. Yet, Mona had been known in the village. Through flashbacks, we learn about her life on the fringes of society. Mona, once a secretary in Paris, had grown disillusioned with her life and chosen to wander the country instead, hitchhiking, sleeping in a tent, and doing odd jobs for survival. She survives with energy despite the hunger, thirst, cold, and lack of cigarettes and marijuana. Her journey leads her to meet other wanderers, a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, a maid who envies her freedom, and a professor specializing in plane trees. Mona explains to one of her companions that she left her life in Paris behind, seeking freedom and a life without responsibility. Mona’s living conditions worsen over time. After a stint in a squat in Nîmes, which is later destroyed in a fire, she returns to the countryside but remains in isolation. She falls into a ditch, unable to rise, as the cold overtakes her. Cast
Critical receptionThe film was acclaimed by critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of 23 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 8.8/10.[3] StyleVagabond combines straightforward narrative scenes, in which we see Mona living her life, with pseudo-documentary sequences in which people who knew Mona turn to the camera and say what they remember about her. Significant events are sometimes left unshown, so that the viewer must piece information together to gain a full picture. It was filmed in the departments of Gard, Hérault and Bouches-du-Rhône.[4] The titleThe original French title, Sans toit ni loi (With neither Shelter nor Law), is a play on a common French idiom, "sans foi ni loi", meaning "with neither faith nor law". It also puns on sans toi ("without you"). Awards and nominations
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