Vagabond (1985 film)

The film begins with the contorted body of a young woman lying in a ditch, covered in frost. From this image, an unseen interviewer (Varda) puts the camera on the last men to see her and the one who found her. The action then flashes back to the woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), walking along the roadside, hiding from the police and trying to get a ride. Along her journey she takes up with other vagabonds as well as a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, an agronomy professor, and a maid who envies what she perceives to be Mona's beautiful and passionate lifestyle. Mona explains to one of her temporary companions that at one time she was a secretary in Paris but became unsettled with the way she was living, choosing instead to wander the country, free from any responsibility. Her condition worsens until she finally falls where we first encounter her—in a ditch, frozen.

• Sandrine Bonnaire as Mona Bergeron
• Macha Meril as Mme Landier
• Yolande Moreau as Yolande
• Stéphane Freiss as Jean-Pierre
• Setti Ramdane as Assoun
• Francis Balchère as Police
• Jean-Louis Perletti as Police
• Urbain Causse as Farmer
• Christophe Alcazar as Farmer
• Joël Fosse as Paulo
• Patrick Schmit as Truck Driver
• Daniel Bos as Demolition Worker
• Katy Champaud as Girl at the Pump
• Raymond Roulle as Old Man with Matches
• Henri Fridlani as The Gravedigger
• Patrick Sokol as Young Man with Sandwich
• Pierre Imbert as Mechanic

The movie was acclaimed by critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of 20 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 8.8/10.[3]

The film combines straightforward narrative scenes, in which we see Mona living her life, with pseudo-documentary sequences in which people who knew Mona turn to the camera and say what they remember about her. Significant events are sometimes left unshown, so that the viewer must piece information together to gain a full picture.

Vagabond was filmed in the departments of Gard, Hérault and Bouches-du-Rhône.[4]

The original French title, Sans toit ni loi ("With neither shelter nor law"), is a play on a common French idiom, "Sans foi ni loi", meaning "With neither faith nor law". It also puns on sans toi ("without you").

• Vagabond at IMDb
• Vagabond at AllMovie
• Vagabond at Rotten Tomatoes
• Vagabond an essay by Sandy Flitterman-Lewis at the Criterion Collection