One Sings, the Other Doesn't

One Sings, the Other Doesn't
Directed by	Agnès Varda
Screenplay by	Agnès Varda
Produced by	Ciné Tamaris
Starring	Thérèse Liotard Valérie Mairesse Ali Raffi Robert Dadiès
Cinematography	Charlie Van Damme
Music by	François Werthmeimer Orchidée
Distributed by	Ciné-Tamaris
Release date	1977 (France)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

One Sings, the Other Doesn't (French: L'une chante, l'autre pas) is a 1977 French film written and directed by Agnès Varda that focuses on the lives of two women against the backdrop of the Women's Movement in 1970s France.

Plot

Pauline (Valérie Mairesse), a schoolgirl studying for her baccalaureate, wanders into a gallery and recognizes an old friend, Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard), in one of the photographs displayed. Suzanne has two children with the photographer and is expecting a third which she cannot afford to keep. In order to help raise funds for an abortion, Pauline lies to her parents about a school trip, and when they find out, she leaves home and begins working as a singer. The photographer commits suicide and Suzanne moves away to live with her parents on their farm. The two women lose touch for ten years but are reunited at a demonstration in 1972 and begin to correspond by postcard. Pauline, now known as Pomme (French: Apple), moves to Iran with her boyfriend Darius (Ali Rafie), but becomes dissatisfied with her life there and returns to France. Suzanne leaves the farm and opens a family planning clinic in Hyères, where she marries a local doctor.

External links

• One Sings, the Other Doesn't at IMDb
• One Sings, the Other Doesn't at AllMovie
• One Sings, the Other Doesn't at Rotten Tomatoes
• One Sings, the Other Doesn’t: Bodies and Selves an essay by Amy Taubin at the Criterion Collection