Vagabond Timed Thoughts
Yesterday I watched the movie Vagabond directed by Agnès Varda. In an attempt to think deeply about the content I consume, I set out a challenge for myself. First I was to sit still and think about the movie for ten minutes. Uninterrupted pondering time. Then I would take ten minutes to handwrite my thoughts about the movie. I now present to you the results of my twenty minute exercise with corrected spelling and formatting. Spoilers follow.
Vagabond 1985 dir. Agnès Varda
Vagabond is a movie about a girl who dies and how others perceive her. The movie starts with Mona's frozen body found in a ditch. There are no surprises for an ending. We are left wondering how a young girl ended up in that position by natural causes. We then get to see the journey of Mona.
At the core of the movie is a tension between those who love the vagabond and everyone else. Some of the characters, the tree professor and the farmer, truly love Mona. They have some connection to her or what she's doing. They try to help, but to no avail. Put best by the philosopher turned goat farmer in the quote: "She's not wandering, she's withering." He makes a distinction between the two. Mona has no wants, no plans, he claims. And to travel that way is to wither. It turns out to be true as Mona slowly withers away. You can see her health rapidly degrade.
We learn about others' perception of Mona through shots of the other characters talking interspersed throughout. This is a fantastic directorial move that emphasizes another theme of perception. Mona is seen so differently than other people. First as a drifter and as a female drifter. Some claim she's out for men, but really is their victim (or a transactional relationship at best).
Experiment Reflections
I think the experiment was a great success to begin thinking about the movie. At the end I was left feeling like I wanted to spend more time writing because I had other thoughts I wanted to explore. I see this as a feature. I now have a jumping in point and an itch to continue exploring the movie, which is essentially the goal of the exercise. I also remember the movie a lot better having engaged with it after viewing, instead of moving on.