One Sings, the Other Doesn’t

One Sings, The Other Doesn’t “remains almost unique as a commercial French film concerned with the militant aspects of the women’s movement” (Alison Smith). The film follows the friendship of two very different women, Pauline (Valérie Mairesse) and Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard), over the course of a decade as each searches for her place in the world. Varda presents a utopian vision, a choice for which she received some criticism when the film was first released, but which some now consider radical for its day. “Without being didactic . . . the film has a great deal to say. Varda’s dialogue is as wittily literary as ever” (Richard Roud).