Mona's trials could be extended to all social misfits, but Miss Varda's work is primarily about us as observers, uneasy

with our helplessness and our detachment from a character whose outer life has been so relentlessly detailed yet whose thoughts remains buried. 'Vagabond,'' which won the first prize at the Venice Film Festival Agnes Varda has created a world too painfully real to ignore. NY TIMES By CARYN JAMES Published: May 16, 1986

Before turning to film, Varda had worked as a photojournalist, a fact often remarked upon to explain her gorgeous framing. Mona (17-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire) who freezes to death in the vineyards of southern France during one of the coldest winters on record. Sandrine Bonnaires Mona a bravura performance that won awards then and remains fresh and gripping was neither sentimentalized nor softened, even in her best moments. Vagabond also displays Vardas signature use of local non-actors in pivotal supporting roles, often essentially playing themselves.

These include the rollicking elderly brandy-drinker Aunt Lydie (Marthe Jarnais), the soulful-eyed Tunisian farm worker Assoun (Assouna Yahiaoui), a drop-out scholar-turned-goat-herder and his wife (Sylvaine and Sabine Berger), a pair of father and son garage mechanics (Pierre and Richard Imbert), and Setina herself, the young drifter upon whom Mona was modeled. Another difference between the two films is that while Varda shows us the circumstances that led Mona to her death, she refuses to show us that actual death. (Mona lived alone, and she could only ever die alone.) Mona is a determined free spirit or just a lost soul.