Vagabond (film)

Plot

The film begins with the contorted body of the woman, covered in frost. From this image, an unseen and unheard interviewer (the voice of Varda herself) puts the camera on the last men to see her and the ones who found her. The action then flashes back to the woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire) walking along the roadside, hiding from the police and trying to get a ride. Along her journey she meets and takes up with other vagabonds such as herself as well as a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, a professor researching trees, and a maid who envies what she perceives to be a beautiful and passionate lifestyle. Mona explains to one of her temporary companions that at one time she had an office job in Paris and did very well for herself, but she became unsettled with the way she was living – choosing instead to wander the country free from any responsibility, picking up what she could to survive as she goes. Throughout the film, Mona's condition seems to become progressively worse until she finally falls where we first saw her, frozen and entrenched in her misery in a ditch.

Cast

Critical reception

The movie was acclaimed by the critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of 13 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 8.7/10.

Style

The film 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 comment on what they remember about her. Significant events are sometimes left unshown, so that the viewer must piece the information together to gain a full picture.

The title

The original French title, Sans toit ni loi, is a play on a common French idiom, "Sans foi ni loi" – "With neither faith nor law."