L'opéra-mouffe

A pregnant filmmaker takes us to rue Mouffetard, "la Mouffe," in the Latin Quarter of Paris for a mix of documentary footage and imagined scenes. Vignettes or chapters unfold - on the feeling of nature, on pregnancy, on anxiety, on desire, and so forth. Women shop at a vegetable market, their faces marked by care and poverty. We see young lovers, playful and innocent. Derelicts drink and sleep on sidewalks. A weary pregnant woman carries her shopping bags; later, she eats flowers. There are counterpoints of gritty realism and playful, near-surrealistic images. Political and artistic consciousnesses create a montage.—