They Speak too much to be Happy

LA POINTE COURTE (1955)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Many film scholars and critics might point to Godard's "Breathless" as the birth of French New Wave filmmaking yet it is actually Agnes Varda's electrifying debut film, "La Pointe Courte," that is the true sire of a new kind of cinematic language where connections need not be made obvious, and sometimes a disparity can exist between images of one location versus the other (though it does not adopt the raw jump cuts and odd assemblage of scenes and angles as Godard's film does). Shot in black-and-white documentary-like fashion, it is a stunning film of raw nerve and honest, heartbreaking beauty.

"La Pointe Courte" is not about plot but about a way of life, the disparity here is between a Parisian married couple trying to reconnect and communicate and find their voice in a fishing village. In the village itself (which is where the husband grew up), communication extends to parents feeding children and maintaining old fashioned views on marriage; fishermen being harassed by local police on forbidden areas to trap shellfish, and the problematic issue of too many cats. Clothes are frequently seen hanging on clotheslines, fluttering in the wind. We see a lot of chopped wood, unkempt shacks and a casual disregard for cleanliness (a nearby lagoon for fishing is contaminated) - these people are poor and just getting by but they remain earthbound in their attitudes and sensibilities particularly about their offspring and whom they should date and marry.

The Parisian couple (played by Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noiret) have a casual disregard for the past, they march along the village and wait for a train car to pass (without wondering for a second what the hell a slow train car is doing in the area), they ask for a canoe to take them to a hotel when they could have used the connecting bridge, and they cut through a village celebration and dance at the end ready for their own lives in the city. They are concerned with a future where marriage is less about excitement and more about living through it with some measured wisdom. It is implied that the villagers may have similar ideals but they do not dwell on it.

"La Pointe Courte" ultimately serves as a visual poem, enlightening us on how the past intrudes on the future. The descendants probably have a firmer grasp of reality than the couple (interestingly, the villagers are never really show in close-up but the couple is shown in intense close-ups where one face obscures the other in awkwardly distinct directions). Varda's film is about grit versus romanticism, especially in filmmaking. It will not be to everyone's taste but it will linger long after it is over. A first-class miracle of a movie.