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:

Champagne | Climb Through Window | Cigarettes | Brandy | Chain Smoking

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
Richard Imbert	...	Son fils
Marthe Jarnias	...	la vielle Tante Lydie
Yolande Moreau	...	Yolande, sa bonne
Gabriel Mariani	...	Son oncle AIMÉ B.I.O.N.N.E.T.
Patrick Lepcynski	...	David, le juifferrant
Sylvaine Berger	...	les Bergers
Michèle Doumeche	...	La p... sur la route
Sabine	...	le Bergers
Macha Méril	...	la platonologne Mme Landier
Pierette Soler	...	La dame qui parle à son mari
Pierre Emonnot	...	le régisseur pas content
Stéphane Freiss	...	Jean-Pierre, ingéneuragronome
Laurence Cortadellas	...	sa femme Eliane
Emmanuel Protopopoff	...	le routard donneur-de-sang
Vincent Sanchez	...	l'infirmier
Michel Constantial	...	Le réigisseur des caisses
'Garibaldi' Fernández	...	Le maçon au bonnet rond
Alain Roussel	...	l'homme-des-bois, violent
Yahiaoui Assouna	...	Yahiaoui 'Assoun' Assouna, tailleur devinges
Aimée Chisci	...	La régisseur du mas
Marguerite Chisci	...	Sa femme a la télé et à la lessive
Geneviève Bonfils	...	la voyageuse méfiante
Christian Chessa	...	Le Zonard-Mac, a la gare
Setina Arhab	...	la zonarde
Jacques Berthier	...	Le petit monsieur bien-mis
Olivier Jongerlinck	...	le racketeur au photomaton
Rémi Leboucq	...	Le client racketé
Jean Dambrin	...	le trichlomane
Bébert Samcir	...	lr joueur d'harmonica

Directed by
Agnès Varda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Agnès Varda		writer

Produced by
Oury Milshtein	....	producer

Original Music by
Joanna Bruzdowicz

Cinematography by
Patrick Blossier

Film Editing by
Patricia Mazuy
Agnès Varda

Production Management
Oury Milshtein	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jacques Royer	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Jonathan Liebling	....	foley artist
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	sound

Production Companies

• Channel Four Films
• Ciné Tamaris
• Films A2
• Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française

Distributors

• Criterion Collection, The (2000) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Grange (1986) (USA) (subtitled)

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 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Company:

Channel Four Films

Movie Connections:

References Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)

Soundtrack:

Oh Baby

Sublime poetry for the senses

sans toit ni loi ( without a roof nor rule) by Agnes Varda

Visual poetry in films is rarely sublime.Mostly its an interpretation that is fed to us either by the director of the film or some high-faultin critic who manages to see color in sepiated walls.The rare film that manages to transcend leaves you speechless with nothing to say as words fail to capture the essence , beauty and enigma of that film. All you can say is today I was blessed. Like a born again christian or a corpulent evangelist you wish to celebrate your new found faith with words , gestures , anything that says to the director of the film, you gave me a day of absolute completeness today and a film that will forever stay with me like unrequited love. That transcendental, evocative , sensitive , visually dazzling , transcendence is sans toit ni loi by agnes Varda. The film as has been pointed out is the cinematic equivalent of ulysses . Like James Joyce , varda lets rip a stream of consciousness that is disturbing , sincere and beautifully sublime.The protoganist is a young female drifter, a vagabond who is eternally free. She requires human contact only to fulfill her basic needs and her solitude is complete and absolute , accentuated by her complete disdain for authority or advise.The people she meets are all left with indelible memories of her.Those that pity her are later assailed by thier own infirmities. She refuses to blend or compromise and as one character says is perpetually withering.She dies alone and uncared for and she leaves absolutely no conventional emotional baggage behind.This isnt about a hippie , or a bum , or a dope addict or just a mentally unsound person. Its about a compassionate person who choses to abnegate all her social bonds and moral barriers and lives for nothing more than basic survival. She is the eternal soul that is freedom. Pure , absolute and totally decadent freedom.