L'une chante, l'autre pas (1977)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Agnès Varda

Writer:

Agnès Varda (writer)

Release Date:

9 March 1977 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The intertwined lives of 2 women in 1970's France, set against the progress of the women's movement in which Agnes Varda was involved...

Plot Keywords:

Abortion | Nude Bathing | Feminism | Teenager Nudity

Cast

Thérèse Liotard	...	Suzanne Galibier - puis Aubanel
Valérie Mairesse	...	Pauline alias Pomme
Robert Dadiès	...	Jérôme
Mona Mairesse	...	La mère de Pomme
Francis Lemaire	...	Le père de Pomme
Ali Raffi	...	Darius
Gisèle Halimi	...	Gisèle Halimi
Jean-Pierre Pellegrin	...	Docteur Pierre Aubanel
Joëlle Papineau	...	Joëlle
Micou Papineau	...	Micou
Doudou Greffier	...	Doudou
François Wertheimer	...	François
Mathieu Demy	...	Zorro
Marion Hänsel	...	La funambule enceinte
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gilette Barbier
Françoise Bette
Patricia Cartier
Dominique Ducros	...	Marie, 13 ans
Laurent Plagne
Rosalie Varda	...	Marie

Also Known As:

One Sings, the Other Doesn't (USA)

Runtime:

Japan:107 min (cut version) | USA:120 min

Country:

Venezuela | France | Belgium

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Singapore:R21

Filming Locations:

Écoute-s'il-pleut, Oise, France

Company:

Ciné Tamaris

"the group" revisited by Agnès Varda.

Sidney Lumet's "the group"(from Mary McCarthy) was,in its own special way,some kind of woman's lib manifesto.Here the group is a two-person team but we see them live during a pretty long time,from 1962 to the mid-seventies.It's interesting to notice that abortion was legal in France only in 1975,thanks to minister Simone Veil.

Agnès Varda's last feature film was "les creatures" a work for highbrows."L'une chante,l'autre pas" is a return to an accessible ,more palatable style.All things woman's lib indeed.Of the two characters ,Suzanne,played by beautiful Thérèse Liotard,is by far the most endearing:her path ran into difficulties,even tragedies:her lover's suicide,her parents' despise who treated her like a dog,her affair with a married man...Pomme is a singer who wants to be free,but she acts like a bubblehead girl:marrying an Iranian,were he the most liberal of them all, is not perhaps the right move..

A lot of this stuff has not worn well:the second part recalls hippies communities,and chic ones at that.The epilogue might be a nod to "le bonheur" her 1964 movie,which was nevertheless disputable in several respects.

Agnès Varda regained the audience's favor in the eighties with "sans toit ni loi" and her superb love movie for her husband Jacques Demy "Jacquot de Nantes".