One signs, the Other Doesn’t (L'une chante l'autre pas)
Replay: 21. 10. at 20.00 in Slovenska kinoteka.
Paris, 1962. The smell of revolution is in the air. Pauline (Valérie Mairesse) is a vivacious city girl, an untamed stubborn woman who dreams of a singing career. The slightly older Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard), mother of two children, has fled the bleak countryside for the city, where she still struggles with poverty - she cannot afford a third child. The two become friends when Pomme lends Suzanne money for an illegal abortion. A tragic chain of events then tears them apart, and it is only ten years later that they meet by chance at an abortion rights protest. They promise to stay in touch - writing postcards to each other, through which we see how the women's rights movement shapes and changes their lives. “One Sings, the Other Doesn't” is one of Varda's most politically outspoken yet warm films, a feminist musical that still resonates with clarity and songfully sharpness today.
Directed by: Agnès Varda; screenplay by: Agnès Varda; produced by: mk2; starring: Thérèse Liotard, Valèrie Mairesse, Ali Rafie, Robert Dadiès; cinematography: Charlie Van Damme; music by: Francois Werthmeimer Orchidér; distributed by: Ciné Tamaris. co-production: City of Women, Kinoteka; cofunders: BEPART, Ministry of Public Administration RS.
The screening will be followed by discussion The right to choose: the personal is political. Discussion will be held in Slovenian language.
The right to choose: the personal is political
More than half a century ago, rebel muse Carole Roussopoulos and her companions made the documentary “Just Don't Fuck!” (“Y'a qu'à pas baiser”, 1971), which also contained footage of abortions performed at a time when abortion was still banned in France. Only a few years later, the famous French director Agnès Varda addressed the subject of abortion openly with “One sings, the Other Doesn’t”.
If the seventh art has become well acquainted with the subject of abortion in the last decades, and the direct representation and addressing of this topic is no longer the sole domain of female directors/activists - just think of Christian Mungiu's “4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days” (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile [4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile], 2007) - the situation in the field of abortion, whether in Poland, Croatia or the USA, has become more acute again.
At the event, we will discuss the history and importance of the struggle for reproductive rights, the newly emerging conservative reproductive policies, and what films can tell us about the state of the world that wants to control women's bodies. The discussion, moderated by Petra Meterc, will include Milica Antić Gaber, Vesna Leskošek and Majda Širca Ravnikar.
