Documenteur (1981)

This has to be one of the most underrated film in the history of cinema and for sure among the best films to come out of the 80s.
Documenteur starts where Agnès Varda's Mur Murs ends, but they have very little in common and do not need to be seen together.
Mur Murs is all about the external life of people. What we put on the outside of your walls. Documenteur is about our internal life, what we hide.
The title may suggest that it is a documentary but it is not. It is filmed in a documentary style, very much like Abbas Kiarostami did in his Koker trilogy. It is also inspired by her own life and Agnès Varda even uses her own son and her own editor (Sabine Mamou) to play the roles of Varda's assistance (but in reality both are a stand in for Agnès Varda and her own son). In one scene Sabine Mamou reads the narration for Mur Murs and when it is played back, we hear the voice of Varda. Sabine Mamou asks if this is really her voice and is told that we usually don't recognise our own voice. Agnès Varda was making a film about her own life but did not realise before much later that she had made a self biographic film. She did not recognise her own voice. Art imitates life.
This is a hauntingly beautiful film. Poetic, ambivalent, melancholic and meditative. It takes place in LA and a lot of the shots are at the shore. The west was a symbol of hope. But what happens when you can't go any farther west? When you are at the shore and you have lost hope, you are full of desires you can't fulfill, your life is fleeting way and you feel like you are drifting farther and farther from where you want to be.
There is almost no story here. The film focuses on emotions, a state of mind. If you like atmospheric and poetic films then this masterpiece is your cup of tea. Watch it and spread the good news. This film needs to be seen!

Please Note: Playback of this H.265/HEVC encoded video file in VLC media player may cause problem (like Green Screen). A fresh install of the player or a new version can solve this problem. I strongly suggest you to download and install "K-Lite Codec Pack (Full or Mega version; totally free with WMP Classic)" on your system first and then try to play the file in VLC. If you still face the same problem, please switch your media player. I prefer "PotPlayer x64" and "WMP Classic HC x64". They're also free and filled with lots of stuff, just like your old friend VLC. Mac users please get help from the Internet and YouTube.MS18pp