Tracking shots, female voices, and the woman
“With the alienated and alienating Mona, the film (The Vegabond) disrupts the classical structures of the look and narrative because she refuses that place culturally assigned to the woman” (Hottell). One of Hottell’s closing statements explains Varda’s approach to a feminist counter-cinema film. Varda uses the narrative, the camera, and voice-over to disrupt the power of the male gaze and the phallocentric capture of a woman as an object and to-be-looked at. By creating a story about a solo traveling woman who never bathes shields Mona from the male gaze and being an object to-be-looked at. Covered in dirt and stench, Varda creates character that doesn’t care to-be-looked at thus not drawing the male to gaze at her. Varda uses the camera to show Mona’s travels, the spaces she passes through, and the people she meets. Only at the beginning, when Mona arrives from the sea, does the camera objectify her. Mona is never framed or looked at secretly through a window by a male gazer. Many tracking shots limit the about of frames solely on Mona. This limits the amount of time spent of framing the female body, thus allowing for more emphasis on the narrative and ideals of the character herself. By framing the story at the beginning of the movie, Varda herself in a voice-over, explains what will happen in the film. The use of a female voice removes the phallocentric element that most films posses. The use of the tracking shot, female voice-over, and almost no objectification of Mona with the camera Varda creates a feminist counter-cinema film the disrupts the power of the male gaze and phallocentrism.