ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN’T

ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN’T (L'UNE CHANTE, L'AUTRE PAS), 1976
France, Belgium, Venezuela | DCP, Color, 120' | French
Cast: Thérèse Liotard, Valérie Mairesse, Robert Dadiès

The story unfolds with the backdrop of 1970s France, during the second wave of feminism, and depicts the intersecting lives of two very different women. Suzanne is living with a photographer who is the father of her two young children. She finds out that she is pregnant with a third child, but she doesn’t have the means to take care of another one. Pomme, whom she meets during this period, assists her in her process of abortion. Years later, Suzanne moves to her family’s farm together with her children. Meanwhile, supporting the women’s liberation movement with her songs, Pomme gets married and moves to Iran; but things won’t turn out as she has planned. Despite the separate routes their lives take, the two women hang on to their relationship. Displaying the sisterhood, friendship and solidarity of these two women, the film is Varda’s gift to the women’s liberation movement that she is also a part of.