Diary of a Pregnant Woman (1958)
"L'opéra-mouffe" (original title)

Impressions of the rue Mouffetard, Paris 5, through the eyes of a pregnant woman.

Director:

Agnès Varda

Writer:

Agnès Varda (narration of opening chapters "Quatrains")

Stars:

Dorothée Blanck, Antoine Bourseiller, André Rousselet

Cast

Credited cast:
Dorothée Blanck	...	L'amoureuse (as Dorothée Blank)
Antoine Bourseiller
André Rousselet
Jean Tasso
José Varela	...	Lover
Monika Weber

Storyline

A pregnant filmmaker takes us to rue Mouffetard, "la Mouffe," in the Latin Quarter of Paris for a mix of documentary footage and imagined scenes. Vignettes or chapters unfold - on the feeling of nature, on pregnancy, on anxiety, on desire, and so forth. Women shop at a vegetable market, their faces marked by care and poverty. We see young lovers, playful and innocent. Derelicts drink and sleep on sidewalks. A weary pregnant woman carries her shopping bags; later, she eats flowers. There are counterpoints of gritty realism and playful, near-surrealistic images. Political and artistic consciousnesses create a montage.

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Plot Keywords:

poverty | shopping | market | sleep | pregnancy | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

27 October 2001 (Czech Republic)

Also Known As:

Diary of a Pregnant Woman

Filming Locations:

Rue Mouffetard, Paris 5, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ciné Tamaris

Technical Specs

Runtime:

16 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Visa d'exploitation en France # 31493 bis.

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Connections

Featured in A Woman Is a Woman (1961)

User Reviews

The Pregnant Poet

A bit overshadowed by the works of male filmmakers of the late 1950s and early Sixties in France –as Godard, Chabrol, Truffaut and Resnais-, that helped to found the "nouvelle vague", Varda is nevertheless known as the "grandmother" of this film movement, with her praised first feature "La Pointe-Courte" (1956) and this beautiful short made in Paris while she was pregnant, a homage to the Mouffetard street in Paris and its people, to love, life and old age, which she defined as "neighborhood cinéma." A fresh and free-form exercise of images, songs and inter-titles, it confirmed the promise of a talented and innovative director, who went on to make more remarkable films as "Cléo de 5 à 7" (1961), "Sans toit ni loi" (1985), and, at 72, "Les glaneurs et la glaneuse."