Sans toit ni loi (1985)

Director:

Agnès Varda

Writer:

Agnès Varda (writer)

Release Date:

16 May 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In winter in the south of France, a young woman is found frozen in a ditch. She's ill kempt, a vagabond...

Plot Keywords:

Ditch | Goat | Porn | Alone | Tunisian

Awards:

8 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Sandrine Bonnaire	...	Mona Bergeron, sans toit ni loi
Setti Ramdane	...	le marocaine qui la trouve
Francis Balchère	...	un gendarme
Jean-Louis Perletti	...	un autre
Urbain Causse	...	un paysan interrogé
Christophe Alcazar	...	un autre, brûleyrr de fossé
Dominique Durand	...	le premier motard
Joël Fosse	...	l'autre, Paulo, amant de Yolande
Patrick Schmit	...	le camionneur
Daniel Bos	...	Le démolisseur
Katy Champaud	...	le jeune fille à la pompe
Raymond Roulle	...	le vieux aux allumettes
Henri Fridlani	...	le fossoyeur
Patrick Sokol	...	le jaune homme au sandwich
Pierre Imbert	...	le garagiste

Also Known As:

Vagabond (USA)
Without Roof or Rule (literal English title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France | UK

Language:

Arabic | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Company:

Channel Four Films

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the opening segment, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire) is lying in a ditch in the vineyard. The character Mona is supposed to be dead, but if you look at the actress's neck you can clearly see a neck artery visibly pulsing.

Quotes:

la platonologne Mme Landier: Why did you drop out?
Mona Bergeron, sans toit ni loi: Champagne on the road's better!

Movie Connections:

References Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)

Soundtrack:

The Changeling

Champagne on the road's better!

Sandrine Bonnaire (Her Name Is Sabine) won a César for her portrayal of Mona, a vagabond that traveled in the South of France during the winter until she was found dead in a ditch.

Director Agnès Varda and her film were nominated for Césars. Varda tried to retrace the last weeks of Mona's life through interviews with those with whom she came in contact. They did not know her name or that she was dead. One of those was Mme Landier, played by Macha Méril, who was also nominated for a César.

Mona comes across many people as she hitches rides, looks for money or food or a place to sleep, sometimes sleeping with strangers living the life of a dropout. In one interesting interlude, she came across another dropout, with a Master's in Philosophy, who tries to get her interested in settling down as he did with a wife and child, raising goats. He talked about freedom and loneliness and finding a place between the two. She wasn't interested in giving up freedom for companionship.

All the people who met her never really got to know her because, as she told Mme Landier, she makes things up. She tells them what they want to hear. She should have listened to the one man who seemed to have it together. You can dropout a little, but to drop out completely causes a loneliness that eats at you until it consumes you. It is what happened to Mona.

After watching the film, you want to think and ask, "Just how much does anyone really know us?" We may have acquaintances, but do they ever get close enough? If you get IFC, the film is going to be playing this month. I watched the Criterion edition, and it was a beautiful copy that really sticks with you.