Mona the Vagabond
"With the alienated and alienating Mona, the film disrupts the classical structure of the look and narrative because she refuses that place culturally assigned to the woman. Even though her masquerade is undermined at the end, she does not return to society, choosing instead to return to the land." (692 Hottel).
The film Vagabond by Varda we are introduced to a different female lead. While men throughout the film find Mona attractive and make mentions of her physical appeal she is quite different than the typical woman objectified by the male gaze. Not one point in the film is there any scene in which Mona does not have her clothes on. Where the film could have gone the route in showing her body, it chose to keep on the track of having her covered, opposing the overused sex object.
We do encounter a scene in which Mona is attacked in the woods which plays into male domination. However, she does not ever stay with a man which provides her with great independence and a tough exterior. Though she is dependent on others to give her food and at times shelter/work, she always ends up on her own continuing her journey on the road.
Her death is interesting in the film. As the quote above states, Mona does not give in in the end and leaves her body with the land. Mona's journey was about her not conforming to mainstream society. While she could have stayed in one place and kept a job, she chose to continue her vagrant life on her own. Her death could be seen as her "punishment" for not conforming. She took to the road, but the road gets her in the end. It consumes her much to the point of exhaustion. Mona having already lived a life of conformity clearly would have understood that it would be easier to leave her journey and find a job and a place to live, but she stuck to her life outside society's standards. She lived and died with the road.