DU COTE DE LA COTE (ALONG THE COAST)(THE RIVIERA: TODAY’S EDEN)

(director/writer: Agnes Varda; cinematographers: Quinto Albicocco/Raymond Castel; editor: Henri Colpi/Jasmine Chasney; music: Georges Delerue; cast: Roger Coggio, Anne Olivier, Jacopo Nizi (narrators); Runtime: 25; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Anatole Dauman/; Janus; 1958-France-in French with English subtitles)

“Visually lush documentary on the French Riviera.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Agnes Varda(“Le Bonheur”/”The Gleaners and I”/”Cleo from 5 to 7”) helms this visually lush documentary on the French Riviera. The New Wave French filmmaker, now 87-years-old, paints a sarcastic view of the Riviera as a place of Eden. It features tourists, historic buildings, parks, gardens and beaches.

The director, using 3 narrators (Roger Coggio/Anne Olivier/Jacopo Nizi) to voice her tongue-in-cheek comments, pokes gentle fun at the summer vacationing bourgeois while giving us an abbreviated history lesson of the south of France.

It also features a look at merry-making tourists during the annual carnival, a shot of Henri Matisse’s grave, the mostly yellow and blue hats worn by the wannabe fashionable lady tourists and shows us the hotel where Emile Zola honeymooned.

REVIEWED ON 3/11/2015 GRADE: A-