Vagabond (1985)
Compassion for squatters.
Presentation:
Agnes Varda is one of those filmmakers cinephiles love alongside Chantal Ackerman for pretty obvious post modernist reasons. I could not find a good restoration of this film so if there was any well composed cinematography, I wasn’t able to appreciate it. Frankly the picture looks low quality and the gritty documentary-esque style didn’t help either. There’s a noteworthy non linear structure utilizing interview flashbacks to sympathize with this vagrant’s life, but for the life of me I could not find her likable.
Conclusion:
I can see why and how this film is respected. It has the provenance of compassionate storytelling and does make you feel pity at the end. I also strangely connected the DNA of this film with other TV series like Skins. As good of a person Agnes Varda is, this was not a good film for me. I loved Cleo from 5 to 7, but this is far off the highway from that one.
Recommendations
Compassion for squatters.