Vagabond (Agnes Varda, 1985)

I'm working my way piece by piece through Criterion's Agnes Varda box set, and although Vagabond (or, its French title, Without Roof or Rule, which I actually like better) doesn't quite live up to the promise of Le Bonheur, it's quite a good film in its own right. Sandrine Bonnaire, whom I loved in A Nos Amours, plays Mona (formerly Simone), a young drifter about whom we know almost nothing. We never learn about her past, or what (except hating life as a secretary) made her abandon normal life and live on the road; this is a breath of fresh air, as most films would have become overly bogged down in the past and sentimentalization of the road. There's no sentamentality here; the first scene in the movie is Mona frozen to death after sleeping in a ditch. She's never identified, and is buried in a potter's field. But from there, we go back to the past few weeks in her life, and find out the effect she's had on all the people she's recently met on the road. There's the former drifter and his wife and children, who now run a sheep farm, who want to give Mona a parcel of land to farm for herself and are bitterly disappointed when she doesn't want to take up a solitary existence. There's the tree researcher, who treats Mona alternately as a freak, a pet project, and someone to whom she looks up as an example of freedom. There's the researcher's protegee, and his elderly aunt and her maid, and the Tunisian migrant worker who teaches Mona how to clip grape vines and provides the central heart of the film. Mona is up front about what she wants from people: money, food, a ride, a place to stay. But all these people take something from her, and they are much more conflicted and conventional about it. It takes almost everyone she meets a long while, if ever, to realize that Mona is someone who has something to offer, although she might not be conventionally a teacher. This is a wonderful portrait of a young woman with so much to offer, who lives how she wants (or does she?) and dies young. The Criterion transfer is beautiful, as is to be expected, and Varda's script and direction are wonderful. 8/10

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Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)

Dawn of the Dead is arguably the best horror movie ever, and pretty much the best zombie movie ever (even the 2004 remake is pretty damn good). So even though 1985's Day of the Dead, with its bleak world view and claustrophobic feel, is a good movie, it doesn't stand a chance next to its predecessor. Set a few years (I think) after DotD, it involves some of the only survivors of the zombie plague. Instead of hiding in a mall, they are now in an underground bunker, and divided into three strict groups: military, scientists who want to study the zombies, and civilians who want nothing more than to live out their last days happily. They are living underground, in a bunker where they both hide from the zombies, and trap some so Dr. Frankenstein (as he's called) can do experiments on them. The doctor has a pet, Bub, who is a really likeable zombie who can talk (sort of), recognize everyday objects, and have enough emotions to become attached to the doctor. Bub is really the best part of the movie, and when he salutes in his final scene, you want to cheer. Romero again is making a statement on human nature, and how we are our own worst enemies, even when faces with the undead. There's fighting within the groups, which turns, inevitably, to violence and bloodshed. In the end, the heroine Sarah and her colleagues are running as much from the military as they are from the zombies. The movie is tense and angry until the zombies inevitably get into the compound, and when they do, there's a lot of really great and unique gore. The social commentary doesn't work as well as in Dawn, but for a likeable zombie hero and some better than average gore, you can't go wrong with Romero. 7/10 RIYL: The Dead series (many elements that were supposed to be in Day appear and are expanded upon in 2005's Land of the Dead)

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