The Pleasure of Self-erasure: Malabou, (Sexual) Anarchy and Agnès Varda’s Sans toit ni loi

Abstract

This article interprets Agnès Varda’s Sans toit ni loi (Without roof or law) through the lens of Catherine Malabou’s concept of anarchy as the “non-governable”: order without command or origin. I elucidate key elements of Malabou’s anarchy in my analysis of Varda’s character Mona Bergeron, a rebellious girl who wanders free from structures of domination. I read Varda’s Mona as an emblem of sexual anarchy, with detailed reference to Malabou’s argument that the clitoris – a “little pebble” of concealed pleasure – symbolically disrupts heteronormative governance. Turning to Varda’s filmmaking approach, I engage with Rebecca J. DeRoo’s view that Varda practiced “strategic naivety”, and that her ostensibly artless stance towards cinema history helped her navigate and survive in a male-dominated industry. DeRoo also underscores the influence of non-cinematic works, like Renaissance painting and vernacular photography, in Varda’s films. My article suggests that the intermedial role of photography and ancient myth – akin to a “little pebble” or “scruple” – punctuates both the montage and narrative of Sans toit ni loi. I propose that Varda’s film, with its camera tracking beside the walker and rendering silence, captures the transient freedom of her rebellious girl and discloses an anarchic order that temporarily collapses social hierarchies and governances, while also revelling in the caesura – the cuts or disappearances – that accompany this alternative formation.