Sans Toit ni Loi (Vagabond) (Without Roof or Rule) poster & wallpaper
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Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stephane Freiss, Laurence Cortadellas, Yolande Moreau ... see more see more... , Marthe Jarnias , Joël Fosse , Patrick Lepcynski , Yahiaoui Assouna , Jacques Berthier , Daniel Bos , Katy Champaud , Dominique Durand , Henri Fridani , Pierre Imbert , Setti Ramdane , Raymond Roulle , Patrick Schmit , Patrick Sokol

Vagabond, directed by Agnes Varda is the dark disturbing story of a female drifter named Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire). The film opens as Mona's frozen body is found in a drainage ditch and proceeds to tel... read more read more...l her story in a series of flashbacks and semi-documentary style "interviews" with the people who have known Mona during the last few weeks of her life. Mona is a distant, independent and not-very-likeable woman who goes from place to place, living where she can and with anyone who will take her in. Mona's true nature remains a puzzle, both to those who thought they knew her, and to the audience. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that no one knew the true Mona and she, because of her aloofness and essential coldness, provided a canvas for those she met to write upon. Who Mona really was, and what she thought remains ambiguous. Sandrine Bonnaire is excellent as Mona, making an unappealing and cold character interesting and intriguing. Director Agnes Varda began her career as a still photographer. This beginning is evident in her elegant framing of the film. She has an instinctive awareness of and a photographer's eye for visual detail which makes the film cold, bleak, and aridly beautiful. Internationally acclaimed, Vagabond is Varda's most successful film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

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83% liked it

1,457 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

11 critics

R, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Agnès Varda

Release Date: September 1, 1985

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DVD Release Date: May 16, 2000

Stats: 132 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (132)

  • fb1216165431
    September 22, 2011
    fb1216165431
    Pursuing the roads for purpose, meaning, and acceptance. A subjective examination of a pernicious interpretation of freedom, Vagabond is an Agnès Varda character examination that simply observes and appreciates, mostly dependent on the outstanding performance of a young Sandrine ... read moreBonnaire as Mona Bergeron. Outstanding.
  • rubystevens
    July 18, 2011
    rubystevens
    it's a beautiful film, perhaps a little too poetic in it's view of homelessness. definite tones of' 'into the wild' in other characters' envy of the heroine's freedom. i loved how varda framed shots but was a little annoyed at characters breaking the fourth wall. sandrine bonn... read moreaire is excellent, well worth a watch
  • webalina
    July 21, 2010
    webalina
    A teenage girl is found frozen to death in a ditch on a winter morning in rural France. Through flashbacks and interviews, the rest of the film shows the audience how she got there. It's not a happy or pretty story, but it's a story worth experiencing.

    The film follows this y... read moreoung woman, named Simone "Mona" Bergeron, as she travels on foot across Southern France. We watch as she encounters others such as herself, and others who are not like her at all. She drinks too much, uses drugs, has sex seemingly indiscriminately, seems to have no goals or plans other than life on the road. She reveals a few desires along the way, such as wanting to have a potato farm and wanting a relationship with someone, but when both opportunities present themselves, she does not make use of them. We are never told any more about her, where she is from, if she is running away or running to, and from or to what. The people who knew her along the way discuss her only in the barest of details, in that they don't know any more than we do about her. There are several scenes of people judging Mona based on her outward appearance. Yes, they are correct in some instances, but somehow they still come across as clods for thinking that way.

    I've always found Southern France to be beautiful, with its quaint towns, wide fields of lavender, grapes and sunflowers, and fountains. However, in director Agnes Varda's hands, this open landscape turns into something desolate and unfriendly, cold to all but the most privileged of its citizens, but yet still beautiful. It is very much a metaphor for Mona's life.
    With the exception of a few characters -- Madame Landier the agronomist, Yolande, Jean-Pierre and his delightful old aunt Lydie -- only Mona is given any real screen time. Sandrine Bonnaire won a Cesar (the French Academy Award) for her portrayal of this down-and-out young woman. She was only 18 at the time, and she does a wonderful job of making Mona both sympathetic and distasteful -- we are told she smells bad, she is lazy and rarely it seems that she appreciates the things people do to help her. But yet you still want her to succeed, even though we know from the very beginning that she won't. Bonnaire resembles a young brunette Jeanne Moreau, so much so that I researched to see if there was any familial connection (I didn't find anything.)

    You might want to save this film for another time if you are feeling in any way down or lonely. But don't forget about it. You may be saddened, but you won't be disappointed.
  • Dracula787
    May 11, 2008
    Dracula787
    An interesting French film, one that is in many ways meant as an answer to Citizen Kane. Like Kane, the film begins with the central character?s death and then tells that person?s life story through flashbacks remembered by various people she met. The difference is that instead... read more of telling the story of a millionaire it tells the story of a homeless woman. Of course, this isn?t anywhere near as great as Citizen Kane, but it is an interesting take on that film?s format. The things that happen to the vagabond are not spectacularly interesting in and of themselves, but they form an interesting portrait. The ultimate irony, is that in many ways this vagabond is much happier when she dies than Charles Foster Kane could have ever dreamed to be.
  • HuskersNC949597
    May 12, 2010
    HuskersNC949597
    An uplifting slice of life story, and by uplifting I mean dank, dirty and not in any way, shape or form uplifting. Mona Bergeron apparently just didn't like working as a secretary, so she chose a life of wandering around rolling in mud and getting raped.

View All Sans Toit ni Loi (Vagabond) (Without Roof or Rule) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Ken Hanke
March 31, 2010
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

A striking film -- one that feels like it was made at least 10 years earlier -- and, I must note, a fairly depressing one. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
March 5, 2010
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Gets a stellar performance from Bonnaire. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
October 21, 2006
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Agnes Varda's anatomy of a female vagabond, beautifully played by Sandrine Bonnaire, is captivating, haunting and uncompromising. Full Review

Mark Athitakis
July 11, 2005
Mark Athitakis, Filmcritic.com

shows how there's an inherent brutality to living without rules... without ever devolving into melodrama or didacticism Full Review

Thomas Delapa
April 13, 2005
Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly

Varda alludes to both Citizen Kane and the Bible to recreate the short, disconnected life of Mona, a lost soul who has always depended on the kindness of strangers. Full Review

Michael E. Grost
December 13, 2004
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

Visually beautiful, tragic drama. Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
September 1, 2002
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

Focuses on the life and difficulties of a female drifter who enjoys solitude and a no-strings attached relationship with the people she encounters. Full Review

Jeremy Heilman
March 24, 2002
Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com

Taken as an examination of how we watch and react to the films (and the real people) that we see, it becomes transcendent. Full Review

Caryn James
May 20, 2003
Caryn James, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Click to read the article Full Review

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