Vagabond
"...through this contrast of movement versus immobilism, Varda subverts the traditional codes of classical narrative cinema which depict man as the gender on the move and women as static" (Hayward 288).
The use of cinematic elements to depict cultural ideals and make personal statements is both abstract and yet blatantly resounding. We never seem to be able to catch Mona, as Hayward states in the reading. From the beginning, people's perceptions of her are always expressed when she is out of grasp. When the woman Mona travels with for a brief period tells a man to go find Mona, when he does she is belligerent and she "scares him away". This represents that although she has reentered a life she fled from, she cannot be contained and continues her free exploration, depending on no one. I finished the film not feeling quite like I knew her, her motives, or why she was the way she was, but I still felt satisfied that the film had portrayed exactly what it was meant to.
Although the music used throughout the film always had a threatening tone, it greatly contrasted Mona's fairly consistently calm demeanor and lack of fear. It made me feel that I should be concerned about Mona, yet many events led me to believe that despite the music and common assumptions, she was doing fine on her own (early on in the film, at least). At times, we were led astray by the personal accounts of the people she encountered. One man said, "Female drifters are all the same, loafers and men-chasers". Yet when we watched Mona in action, these did not seem to be her sole motives or goals on the road. It was this constant 'mixing up' of perceptions that, to me, shattered cinematic norms. In some scenes, she was depicted as homeless, yet when she stayed with Assoun, she was said to "live outdoors". This euphemism was another way in which the viewer couldn't create a stereotype of the main character, because she was constantly evolving in the eyes of others.