Audience Member
Kudos to Agnes Varda for always taking an interest in the underbelly of society, but watching a generally miserable, difficult, ungrateful and filthy person slowly and grimly plod through the hobo life during a cold French winter was a bit too excruciating for me.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/21/24
Full Review
Audience Member
It was produced in 1985, but it is familiar and looks like today’s California and San Francisco. Today’s San Francisco has more homeless and more deaths, thanks to Democratic Party politicians’ weird policies.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
11/09/23
Full Review
Nicholas L
So beautiful and tragic. An irreplaceable film.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
06/27/23
Full Review
David F
I think the first time I ever watched this film was when it was shown on the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a channel available in Michigan, probably some time in the 1990s. They showed foreign and independent films on Friday nights, at midnight, I think, introduced by a song that I can remember sounded like Michael Sembello's Maniac (maybe it was that song). Anyways, it was one of the films that opened my eyes to the wonders of foreign films, the wonders of French film, and the wonders of views that weren't the views of Hollywood.
Here you have a film where the main character is a woman, and not just a member fo the second sex, but one who is a poor misfit who doesn't fit in anywhere, doesn't have a home, and isn't very nice at all. So basically, it's a revolutionary film. The vagabond, Mona, hitchhikes around a wine region, falls in with a bunch of different people, none for very long, takes some odd jobs, smokes pot and listens to music. Does she have a philosophy of life? I guess maybe, but she's more of a mood or an attitude, and one that I love. She mentions working a steady job in the past but she hated it and now she has embraced something else - an unconventional life, total freedom, total irresponsibility - something like that.
The format of the film is excellent. It comes across as a documentary - the first scene is Mona dead in a ditch, this is what her life and her choices have lead her to. From there we get a pseudo-documentary take on her final weeks. People who crossed paths with her are interviewed. Some of them admired her, some looked down on her, some did not like the way she smelled. It's like Citizen Kane for a homeless woman.
This movie is a masterpiece. There is so much to think about after watching it. It gives you intellectual stimulation but no firm answers. It's a beautiful heartbreaking film that just says, some of us want something different and that need to be justified or explained, it may be presented, and that presentation shall be a work of art.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/13/23
Full Review
dave s
Agnes Varda's Vagabond opens with the discovery of a young girl's body being found in a ditch, frozen to death in the French countryside. The remainder of the film is told in flashbacks as it follows Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire) over her final days, interspersed with comments from those who encountered her on her travels prior to her death. What makes the film so intriguing is the fact that Varda offers little in the way of background information on her tragic protagonist – is Mona escaping from her past or is she simply seeking absolute freedom, regardless of the cost? Bonnaire's performance and Varda's direction (plenty of sparse, colorless landscapes and slow tracking shots) make Vagabond tough but compelling viewing.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
One of the most intelligent and reflective masterpieces of Varda, this picture opens the conversation about freedom, women's freedom.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
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