This Agnès Varda film is said to have kickstarted the French New Wave. It’s seen as having channeled Italian Neorealism into a French setting, and its images provided a clear influence for Ingmar Bergman’s later work. No small feat for a debut feature! La Pointe Courte carries that significance with its head and bob haircut held high, even if the film may not reach the greatest of heights in all its technical aspects: some dialogue added in post production doesn’t quite match the speakers’ mouth movements. Only nitpickers will notice this, however, and the rest of the film dazzles with its freshness.
Structurally, the film is split into two sections, whose differences highlight each one’s strengths. One half focuses on a fishing village in Southern France – somewhat shabbier than the Riviera – and the other on a fading marriage and a woman who arrives all the way from Paris to deliver its deathblow. Varda depicts the village teeming with cats and fishing nets through a documentarian’s lens and populates it with amateur actors. Children glancing straight into the camera adds a level of realism, rather than alienation. The struggles of saving a marriage are depicted through stylized imagery, where faces provide intimate backdrops for emotional journeys. Varda’s background in photography is visible in the images of La Pointe Courte, but armed with the benefit of hindsight, one can also see how her debut fits within the bold path that she later carved for herself.
Kaisu Tervonen