Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (Agnès Varda, 2000): France

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau. Viewed at the Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) is easily the funniest documentary I’ve ever seen. I actually think my giggles outnumbered normal breaths taken during the 82 minutes of the film… But more importantly, this lyrical documentary about the art of gleaning is illuminating and upholds Agnès  Varda’s history as a creative force in experimental film.

The film follows Varda, or rather, Varda follows her camera, through the French countryside and into the city in an investigation of the practice of collecting leftovers and the lives of the those who “glean” as a means of physical, mental, even emotional survival. Gleaning, as we learn, is intrinsic to French culture and has long been a source of inspiration for celebrated artists  like Jean-Francois Millet and Van Gogh. The interviewed cast is an assortment of vagabonds, students, gypsies, scholars, and magistrates—all of whom are surprisingly sensitive to the needs of society. The star, however, is Varda’s narration, which would be child-like if it was not imbued with wisdom, and which functions much like a character would in its evolution from confessional to contemplative, introspective to irate,  hungry to full, and so on.

In relation, the cinematography serves as an extension of Varda’s thoughts—I recall how she lets the camera linger upon the wrinkles in her hand as she ruminates on age and death. It is narcissism at its best, for the audience is privy to Varda’s experience in the moment of filming. This unfiltered and almost tactile meandering creates a tone of artistic honesty that, though born of  hand-held camera-work and visual tangents, showcases Varda’s control as a storyteller.

For me, the highlight of the film was “La Danse de le Cap” (a brilliant minute-long scene during which Varda leaves her camera on as she walks through the fields, recording the lens cap as it dangles almost gracefully in and out of frame). This was one of many whimsical moments where Varda interrupts the story with her sense of humor as editor and the audience is left to interpret the “true meaning” of spontaneous absurdity (Nothingness and Everything! as I’ve gleaned). However, the abundance of natural comedy is grounded by the story of the gleaners, who are essentially living out the ecological philosophies of the 21^st century in poverty. Of course, there is an anti-conformist, even feminist undercurrent to the whole thing as well.

As the title indicates (its proper translation would be “The gleaners and the gleaneress”) Varda includes herself in her subject as a gleaner of images and stories. This inclusion expands the concept of gleaning to an act that is resourceful and artistic, in all mediums… allowing the viewer who sits before a projection of light and sound to ask herself: Could this too be an act of gleaning?