{"id":7643,"date":"2010-02-21T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T18:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2010-02-21T23:18:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T07:18:33","slug":"les-glaneurs-et-la-glaneuse-agnes-varda-2000-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7643","title":{"rendered":"Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (Agn\u00e8s Varda, 2000): France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau<\/a>. Viewed at the Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Film Festival.<\/p>\n

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Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse<\/a> (The Gleaners and I)<\/em> is easily the funniest documentary I\u2019ve ever seen. I actually think my giggles outnumbered normal breaths taken during the 82 minutes of the film\u2026 But more importantly, this lyrical documentary about the art of gleaning is illuminating and upholds Agn\u00e8s \u00a0Varda\u2019s history as a creative force in experimental film.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cglean\u201d 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 \u00a0like Jean-Francois Millet and Van Gogh. The interviewed cast is an assortment of vagabonds, students, gypsies, scholars, and magistrates\u2014all of whom are surprisingly sensitive to the needs of society. The star, however, is Varda\u2019s 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, \u00a0hungry to full,\u00a0and so on.<\/p>\n

In relation, the cinematography serves as an extension of Varda\u2019s thoughts\u2014I 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\u2019s experience in the moment of filming. This unfiltered and almost tactile meandering creates a tone of artistic honesty that, though born of \u00a0hand-held camera-work and visual tangents, showcases Varda\u2019s control as a storyteller.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ctrue meaning\u201d of spontaneous absurdity (Nothingness and Everything! as I\u2019ve 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 21st<\/sup> century in poverty. Of course, there is an anti-conformist, even feminist undercurrent to the whole thing as well.<\/p>\n

As the title indicates (its proper translation would be \u201cThe gleaners and the gleaneress”<\/em>) 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\u2026 allowing the viewer who sits before a projection of light and sound to ask herself: Could this too be an act of gleaning?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ve ever seen. I actually think my giggles outnumbered normal breaths taken during the 82 minutes of the film\u2026 But more importantly, this lyrical documentary about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}