Vogelfrei (1985)

Vogelfrei: Directed by Agnès Varda. With Sandrine Bonnaire, Setti Ramdane, Francis Balchère, Jean-Louis Perletti. A young woman’s body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.

“This is a very naked film, almost like a documentary, with nothing to improve on the story it tells or to beautify its people and circumstances. It tells the story of a girl who is completely out of society and her way down to the inevitable bitter end. The film begins by the discovery of her body, and it ends by showing how the body got there. She merely stumbled, which she apparently did all her life. Sandrine Bonnaireu0026#39;s rendering of a character without character, lost in life with nothing to live for, almost without identity, is extremely prosaic, there is very little play-acting and no drama at all, just plain humdrum ordinariness, with a few occasional glimpses of hope when some male friends try to help her, which leaves her indifferent, like receiving money just to throw it away. Itu0026#39;s a portrait of a female bum and nothing else, very interesting but not in the least inspiring. A film to only see once.”