La Pointe Courte [1955]
Agnès Varda’s remarkably assured and exquisitely
shot directorial debut La Pointe Courte
straddled across two iconoclastic film movements, without consciously aiming
for that, though its two loosely connected narratives. The affecting 1st
narrative portrayed, with humour, warmth, exuberance and lyricism, the life of
a tightly-knit, impoverished fishing community in the eponymous French coastal village;
the authorities are trying to clamp down as they believe the shellfish are contaminated
by industrial effluents, which propels the fishermen to find new ways of
dodging the city guys who they clearly disdain, while also enjoying their lives
despite the meagre means at their disposal. The other narrative covered an
unnamed Parisian couple (Philippe Noiret and Silvia Monfort) who’ve come there to
spend a few days together; they roam around the fields, river banks and discarded
boats discussing about their crumbling marriage, and hoping if there’s a way to
save it yet. The only instance where the two narratives coincided was during the
end when the couple is finally seen enjoying while attending an annual revelry that
the village hosts. The infectious former narrative had all the distinctive elements
of Italian Neorealism, including a non-professional cast, on-location shooting
and delightful naturalism. The latter narrative, on the other hand, was
discursive, self-reflexive and stylized – the arresting close-up shots of the
profile of one cutting in half the face of the other, would reappear more
famously in Bergman’s Persona. Though
I found the latter stilted and artsy, it did bear early signs of the Nouvelle
Vague movement, even if it would still be around half a decade before Truffaut would debut
with The 400 Blows, Resnais (who
edited this film) with Hiroshima Mon Amour, and Godard with Breathless.
Director: Agnes Varda
Genre: Drama/Rural Drama/Marital Drama
Language: French
Country: France
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