Vagabond and Counter-Cinema
"These recurring, almost nonnarrative traveling sequence shots convey her wandering mobility with more coldness and distance than a more typical road movie driving sequence" (Laderman 268).
In the film Vagabond, the film techniques and camera movements Varda uses throughout Mona's journey, help to create counter-cinema and disrupt the phallocentrism and male gaze that is usually seen in road movies. These camera techniques include the recurring traveling sequences that Laderman mentions in the quote above. In these specific shot sequences the camera tracks Mona but in the end does not follow her but continues to pan on stopping on inanimate objects. Using this technique, Varda forces the viewer to look away from Mona and not focus on her throughout the entire film creating the "distance and coldness" Laderman describes. This action disrupts the focus of the male gaze and in effect allows Mona to blend in with the surroundings rather than be the center to be framed or objectified. Also these tracking techniques create counter-cinema and disrupt the male gaze by emphasizing the fact that Mona is walking and that she is her own vehicle. Vagabond is completely different from other road movies in the way that there is no vehicle to fetishize or feeling that the vehicle is what helps the characters escape. Mona is her ride and means of transportation. She is not dependent on a vehicle like in Girl on a Motorcycle but is completely in control and drives her own narrative. Vagabond definitely creates counter-cinema as Mona disrupts the male gaze by being in control of her own journey and not being driven or influenced by anything other than her own choices and desires.