Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Du cote de la cote




Written and directed by Agnes Varda, Du cote de la cote (Along the Coast) is a 24-minute travelogue film in which Agnes Varda documents life in the French Riviera in places like Nice and Cannes during the summer. The film is a look into the life in its beauty and various eccentricities as it’s narrated by Roger Coggio and Anne Olivier. The result is a majestic and enthralling short film from Agnes Varda.

Set in the summer, the film is a travelogue of sorts that explores the beauty that is the French Riviera where Agnes Varda through narrators reveal many of the landmarks and other oddities that makes the area so beloved. Shot on location in its many places including Nice, Monaco, and Cannes, the film showcases many of the things that goes on from activities on the beach as well as what tourists do in the Riviera. Much of it is told exactly what would happen if a tourist would go to the Riviera as some of the comments in the narration involve very odd comments about where some famous person, dead or alive, must’ve lived or died at.

Shot in gorgeous color by cinematographers Quinto Albicocco and Raymond Castel, Varda brings great attention to detail into the look of the locations and its beauty as the editing of Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi allows each image to be soaked in. Adding to the film’s beauty and humorous tone is Georges Delerue’s music which is full of lush string arrangements as it plays to the locales and some of its eccentricities.

Du cote de la cote is a gorgeous short film from Agnes Varda that definitely will make anyone want to visit the French Riviera. It’s a film that manages to be very engaging but also display a lot of humor that makes it more than just a simple travelogue. In the end, Du cote de la cote is a ravishing film from Agnes Varda.

Agnes Varda Films: Diary of a Pregnant Woman - La Pointe Courte - Cleo from 5 to 7 - Le Bonheur - (Les Creatures) – (Far from Vietnam) – (Lions Love) – (Daguerreotypes) – One Sings, the Other Doesn’t – (Murals Murals) – (Documenteur) - Vagabond - (Jane B. by Agnes V.) – ((Le Petit Amour) – (Jacquot de Nantes) – (The Young Girls Turn 25) – (One Hundred and One Nights) – The World of Jacques Demy - The Gleaners & I - (The Gleaners & I: Two Years Later) – (Cinevardaphoto) – (Some Windows of Noirmoutier) - (The Beaches of Agnes) – (Faces Places) – (Varda by Agnes)


© thevoid99 2015

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

More Varda! I think I need to have a mini-marathon!

thevoid99 said...

I hope to do more in the year as I really want that box set of some of her best work that is available via Criterion.

Ruth said...

I went to Nice years ago w/ my late mother, soooo beautiful! This one sounds like an enchanting short film!

thevoid99 said...

@ruth-Oh, it is so beautiful. It made me want to go to there.