Du côté de la côte

Agnes Varda's travelogue about the Cote d'Azur during the summer is full of closely observed realities, paired with sarcastic commentary. A voice tells you about what you are looking for in poetic phrases; another gives you its location. There are noisy tourists searching for quiet, sunbathers whose heads seem to be infants or dogs, and always, bright colors.... but on the Cote D'Azure, there is always a bit of blue sky or sea in the shot, except for the German tourists, who wear a uniform green.

This is a documentary, and all documentaries must judge their subject, at least to some extent. Yet the pairing of bright, colorful images and the ironic voices lends a tension as to what Varda thinks about the entire matter.... until the end, when the search for Eden begins...and ends with a garden of imported plants on an isolated island, and the season ends, with the great gates of the great resorts swing close. You find what you look for, I suppose, for a brief season.

One of the most remarkable documentaries ever made, taking that tedious grey manly genre obsessed with 'serious' subjects and 'truth', and throwing buckets of day-glo paint at it. Influenced by Vigo's A PROPOS DE NICE, it concerns the history and profuseness of French coastal resorts. It is satiric and ironic, although its method is a cool Surrealism. Varda is a lot more sympathetic to the sensual pleasures of resorts, the colours, the costumes, building, the unreality of nature, even as she shows the dehumanising of tourists. There is a wistful nostalgia allied with a barely suppressed fury at the exclusivity of these Edens. Like in Vigo, the trip to a resort is a kind of death, a denial of life. Anyone who loves LE MEPRIS should see this.

It's hard to believe that this short film is the outcome of a project sponsored by the French Tourist Office, when you think of what sorts of cheesy things these usually end up looking like (especially in the 1950's). Hard to believe, unless you already know it was made by Agnès Varda at a time when she was just on the cusp of international stardom, which maybe of course you do. There is such a stylish artistry on display here, and whether you've been to the French Riviera or not (or even have interest in it), I think you'll find this film beautiful. It's got the usual sorts of pretty visuals you might think of, but also (and maybe mostly) shots that are less expected, and beautifully conceived and composed. Even as it's ostensibly attempting to drum up tourism, the film has a dry sarcasm about tourists and fashion, and it also adds some really lovely elements of history, philosophy, and poetry. There is therefore a depth to this film and also a sophisticated coolness, which was a trademark of the New Wave movement, and also aligned to what those in the Riviera were trying to project. It may be even more interesting 61 years later than it was in 1958, as we also get that time capsule feeling to what we're seeing.

The same Criterion disc featuring the 1965 masterpiece "Le Bonheur" also features a copy of Varda's sarcastic 1958 travelogue Du côté de la côte, a 25-minute portraits of the Côte d'Azur mixing beautiful color footage of Cannes, Nice, etc with witty and sometimes nasty narration/commentary by an unseen man and a woman that serves to condemn the shallow luxury of the place. A fascinating piece that deserves more attention in this director's great filmography, and an interesting work in the very French category of essayistic films that can on one level be read as "serious" (travel documentary) but on another as a deconstruction of the same subject.

This magnificent short film was made for the French Tourism Bureau, covering the French Riviera. While it succeeds as a travelogue, it ends up as so much more.

Varda pays special attention to emphasize the beauty of the region with a very deep reverence with the use of colourful panoramas.

It is also special to see people out and about in an era of a time past. While they may have lived with less liberties than what we have today, they were also less burdened with modern plagues such as too much busyness including those that are self-imposed like smartphone obsessions. Travelogues of France will always be treasures. But for the modern viewer, to experience an era of simpler enjoyments is a nostalgic pleasure that is almost indescribable. - dbamateurcritic

RATING: 10 out of 10

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Directing by Agnès Varda.