La Pointe-Courte
Directed by Agnes Varda
Written by Agnes Varda
1955/France
Cine Tamaris
First viewing/Hulu
[box] They called me ‘The Ancestor of the New Wave’ when I was only 30. I had seen very few films, which, in a way, gave me both the naivety and the daring to do what I did. — Agnes Varda[/box]
In her first film, Agnes Varda still had to work on her story-telling technique. She already had the images absolutely nailed.
The film tells a couple of simple stories in counterpoint. In the first, a man (Philippe Noiret) has returned to his seaside village birthplace for a holiday. His wife (Silvia Monfort) joins him there five days later. She arrives intending to ask for a separation. We follow their conversations leading to a resolution of their marriage. The second story is a documentary-like chronicle of life in the village. A thread running through it is the constant efforts of the villagers to collect shellfish from a nearby lagoon and the efforts of the health authorities to prevent them from doing so.
The main story moves along at a snail’s pace and was not emotionally engaging to me. The documentary portion is played by amateur actors and was interesting for the folklore content. Shortcomings aside, the whole is total eye candy. Many of the frames would make beautiful stills worthy of the finest gallery.
