(dir. Agnes Varda, 1980)
Note: Originally written for the course "Temporality: Image And Text", Spring Quarter of 2022, at The Evergreen State College.
From 15:16-15:51 in Agnes Varda’s Vagabond, a single, simple scene is presented to us in the frame, that of a horizontal tracking shot moving from right to left, not following anything in particular rather than its own movement. We are shown the side of a road, with some dilapidated stone walls backdropping Mona as she walks through the frame, but not up to speed with it; it's moving faster than she is. This movement, not controlled by Mona’s or that of anything else in the frame, is a sign of fate moving in a certain, definite direction, with Mona both barely able to keep up with it and yet destined to follow it. In the shot, we see her walking towards the camera, bag in tow, walking towards the road, but only for a few seconds, before she spies a police car driving down the road and in response quickly hides behind one of the aforementioned walls as to avoid being caught as a vagabond who’s been trespassing on private property. While it is a perfectly natural and understandable response to avoid being in trouble, one has to wonder why she looks so anxious the moment she spies the police car, and this can be explained through her constantly and consistently desiring to have her freedom, not burdened or ruled over by anyone. The police don’t see her then, but the camera keeps on moving laterally, extending and extenuating her fate of having to keep on moving to stay alive.
Movement in a recurring theme in the film. This is also not the only instance of when the camera seems to be moving without Mona as if guided by fate. She is shown constantly walking and riding in cars on the road, not headed anywhere in particular other than shelter and a new place to be, a new place to express her freedom on the road, unencumbered by anyone, let alone a boss of some kind to impede her movement. In one part of the film, she encounters a rural farm where she is allowed a place to stay and a way to make money if she aids in the business and works the land. Instead, we see her in a state of malaise and rest, to the point that the farmer yells at her for not wanting to work, or having any clear desires or wishes to pursue. Mona would rather remain free than to have to focus on anything more than her whim’s desires and her own survival. And as being free, she has to keep moving, grasping onto her freedom, trying to keep up with the ticking clock of fate which would eventually turn morbid as shown at the beginning of the film. As long as Mona stays moving, she stays alive - perhaps it is the camera, in a sense, that is keeping her alive; some of the most still moments in the film cinematographically are either when she is sleeping or when she is dead. Keeping on moving is the antithesis to these states, and is her main purpose in life other than her aforementioned yearning for freedom.