Sans toit ni loi
" And it is also true that her particular approach of textural intertextualization is equally counter-cinematic in that it works 'in oppostition to the natualized dominant male discourse to produce textual contradictions which would de-naturalize the workings of patriarchal ideology'(Cook 1985, 198)." -Hayward, 291
"Vagabond" is a film of the feminist counter-cinema because the narrative structure that Varda employed in the film was against the norm. The entire film was in flashback and the audience knew the ending/outcome right from the beginning when Mona was found dead.
In terms of working against a partriarchal ideology, from the beginning of Mona's story, an independant woman is portrayed and is able to go on the road by herself with practically nothing and gets by fairly well until she gives up. Everything Mona encounters is from a decision she willfully made, from her deciding to leave her mundane life as a secretary, to earning money doing odd jobs, to her death. "Vagabond" is a feminist counter-cinema film because the main character is a woman who does what she believes in and through a series of her own decisions, she chooses to live her life according to her own ideas and values. Mona doesn't care about her appearance, definitely disrupting the male-gaze and object-to-be-looked-at mentality that was seen in "Girl on a Motorcycle", where Rebecca was very concerned with how she looked and was viewed by all the males in that film. "Vagabond" is an empowering feminist film because Mona is a woman who lives for herself, not letting a male dominating society hold her back.