La Pointe Courte
Sep. 26th, 2019 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerLa Pointe Courte, Agnes Varda’s first movie, is named after the town where it is set: a small French fishing village. The name is apt, because the movie tells a number of stories which are connected only by their setting: the fishermen’s fight with the health inspectors to continue collecting shellfish in a local lagoon; a local girl’s romance with one of those fishermen; a young Parisian married couple who have are visiting, because this is the husband’s hometown, and they hope to sort out their marital troubles.
Actually, it really feels like two movies knitted together. One is a sort of sociological portrait of this French fishing village in the early fifties. This is Varda’s first film, but this section already feels extremely Varda in its focus on these working class people who are often overlooked by filmmakers, its eye for detail, its interest in the process of gathering things - shellfish, in this case - the interest that eventually developed into The Gleaners and I.
The other half is this story of the bourgeois Parisian couple, who feel like they’ve been parachuted in out of space and possibly out of another directors’ oeuvre. (The one exception is the scene where they crawl into the hulk of an old beached ship, decaying and yet beautiful in its excellent craftsmanship.) They are having an extremely mid-twentieth-century French argument about love (do you love me, or are you in love with love?), often accompanied by close-ups of their overlapping faces.
The first movie is interesting: I particularly enjoyed the scene with the boat jousting, where crews of Viking-type boats row toward each other so the men standing on the prows can try to knock each other off with lances. The second movie fits into it awkwardly, and also feels awkward in itself: a little too theatrical, a little too mannered.
But I suppose you can’t expect even Agnes Varda to burst right out of the gate with her vision fully formed.
Actually, it really feels like two movies knitted together. One is a sort of sociological portrait of this French fishing village in the early fifties. This is Varda’s first film, but this section already feels extremely Varda in its focus on these working class people who are often overlooked by filmmakers, its eye for detail, its interest in the process of gathering things - shellfish, in this case - the interest that eventually developed into The Gleaners and I.
The other half is this story of the bourgeois Parisian couple, who feel like they’ve been parachuted in out of space and possibly out of another directors’ oeuvre. (The one exception is the scene where they crawl into the hulk of an old beached ship, decaying and yet beautiful in its excellent craftsmanship.) They are having an extremely mid-twentieth-century French argument about love (do you love me, or are you in love with love?), often accompanied by close-ups of their overlapping faces.
The first movie is interesting: I particularly enjoyed the scene with the boat jousting, where crews of Viking-type boats row toward each other so the men standing on the prows can try to knock each other off with lances. The second movie fits into it awkwardly, and also feels awkward in itself: a little too theatrical, a little too mannered.
But I suppose you can’t expect even Agnes Varda to burst right out of the gate with her vision fully formed.
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Date: 2019-09-26 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 01:49 pm (UTC)//just cracks up helplessly
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Date: 2019-09-26 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 09:42 pm (UTC)