Vagabond

A perfect examination and character study of freedom and survival. Agnes Varda's 1985 effort Vagabond I feel is easily her best feature, it feels like a combination of everything Varda has done up to that point and what would come after. Her usual characters with aimless yet spiritual journey seen in Cleo from 5 to 7 is present here as well as her more structured story telling style from the 1990s and documentary era, it all adds up to create one of the most harrowing and emotionally hypnotic and distant film experiences you can ever see, with a powerful performance from Sandrine Bonnaire, a striking direction and impactful story from Agnes Varda. Vagabond also known as Sans Toit Ni Loi opens with Sandrine Bonnaire's character Mona dead, frozen in a ditch in a French countryside, her body is not claimed by anyone and all thats left of her in the film's world is her undying desire for freedom which people, places and animals who she had interacted with aimlessly can still recall. From then on we follow her from the past up up to her death and see what leads to her poignant death. Vagabond is a brilliantly lonely film that subtly takes the audience for a ride along with our main character, I feel it is irresistible and impossible not to start feeling invested and intimately connected with Mona even with her harsh exterior, as the film goes on it becomes a truly haunting and harrowing watch which cause the audience to really ask and examine our own need for freedom and what it really is. I think Agnes Varda really knocked it out of the park with Vagabond, everything about it feels flawless from the direction, story and performances. Sandrine Bonnaire stars as Mona, our protagonist and she was absolutely beautiful in the role. She's almost like a portrait, you can look at a portrait and see it smile at you but you just have to ask inside, is the person in the painting really smiling for real with geniue emotion? What kind of smile are they even hinting at and are those eyes they are putting on belongs to the painter who paints it or does it actually belong to the person who is putting on those eyes? That is what makes Bonnaire's Mona so intriguing to watch, as the film goes on you really start to question and second guess her thoughts and actions and as we hear endless people react to her in many ways from strangers to almost friends to people who are looking out for her, we start to ask if our judgement/reaction to her are really crafted by our own thoughts or is it becoming more influenced by the people who don't even know her that well in the story let alone her name. It's truly thought provoking and Sandrine Bonnaire gave a very powerful performance, her eyes tells much of the story and I find her to be very impressive and very fascinating in the role. The other actors are fine as well with a stand out being Macha Meril as Mrs. Landier, a tree economist who is one of the many strangers who Mona travels with in her aimless hitchhiking journey and I thought her and Bonnaire were very good together even if they were on screen together for only a few minutes, the scenes with her and Mona was definitely some of my favourites. The direction and story from Varda feels slick, brave and striking, this is easily her most grim and texturedly dirty film and it surprisingly works really well for Varda. Her usual style of making fiction and reality blend together via documentary style filming techniques really adds to the rawness and atmosphere Vagabond creates, the cinematography by Patrick Blossier also really makes the film pop, even at its darkness moments the film still looks stunning yet raw. The way Varda film Vagabond is nothing less then fitting and memorable, I love many of the shots like the constant panning from right to left, finally we have the story which is truly timeless in its subject matter. I believe this is one of those films that people could easily really relate to on a personal level because the feeling of being lost, alone and the aimlessness is one that any human being knows deeply and the film experty produces those emotions from the first frame alone. On a screenplay level this is by far Varda's best paced film, it's not too aimless and carefree like Cleo From 5 To 7, not too overboard like Lion Love or One Hundred and One Nights and not as too meditative as her documentaries, it just feels right on spot and as long as you can handle depressing films, I believe Vagabond makes for a great introduction to Varda. Its beautiful yet cold and unrelenting. Vagabond is a unforgettable piece of Varda art, with a runtime of 105 minutes, if you have some experience with long and slow films this should definitely run by quick because the characters, performances, the story and the direction is easily intriguing and fascinating. Sandrine Bonnaire gave a powerful and striking performance which by the end left me in tears, if you are a common movie goer it could be slow for some and the ending although extremely perfect and appropriate for the film is not your average satisfying ending that you see in normal movies, it's a lot more then that and that's how I would describe Vagabond. Powerful and hauntly raw and unforgettable, it's no wonder why its Varda's most successful film commercially and her most popular. I believe this is Varda's profoundly undying and cold masterpiece. A perfect examination and character study of freedom and survival.