chaos-rampant This is Varda going out again with just a camera. This time she finds vagrants and gatherers of all kinds around the streets of France, some who pick up after discarded harvests in the fields, others who find their objects of art or utility in what people abandon in the street corner. There's a French history of "gleaning" that she references via paintings of women picking up wheat in the fields, that is of course her entry into images of life she gleans with her camera, herself a gatherer, but in another way it is to situate what we see as a certain rite of life with its continuity, something that people do. So I like that we're called to see beyond desperation here, though at a glance many of these lives will seem dismal. Varda has taken an interest in itinerant lives for a long time as previous films by her suggest, Vagabond most notably, and she has the sensitivity of empathizing. We do see a few troubled individuals, because life kind of swung that way before they had a chance to hold on perhaps. But we also see a life that manages just fine for itself and roots itself in the other, something like the anti-ego philosophy of one of the people in the film.None of them are vexed to live as they do, that we see anyway, and it manages to remind me of the ancient Taoist injunctions to forego the anxieties for "humanity" and "responsibility", often hypocritical, and make yourself like a clump of earth that goes on without minding. We manage to fret quite a bit after all as we do our own gathering of important things, though god knows to what real purpose.This is a small film that will appear at times purposeless or addled, in that Varda doesn't aspire for more than what the ground will turn up for her, but she picks it all up with care and has fun with it. She doesn't just see a social issue here and we're better off for it. How much richer the landscape of film would be if more filmmakers would just go out with a cheap camcorder? It isn't the topical subject, any TV crew could film that, it's gracing us with a way of seeing.

giljoelle51 Title: "I mean this is my project: to film with one hand my other hand" -Agnes Varda username: docugleanerFor any documentary lover that enjoys a little French humor, great cinematography, people speaking in French, rides in a car, a one-hand held camera, and having the director on-screen at times or listening to what he/she has to say, "The Gleaners and I" is the perfect documentary for you. If you know the definition of what a gleaner is that's great, if you don't know then just watch the film! "The Gleaners and I" is one of those films that will make you feel like you're on a roller coaster ride. There is a lot going on whether its interviews with gleaners in the farms or in the streets, talking about famous paintings about gleaning, traveling around in a car, or listening to Varda's voice-over about her interests. Varda accomplishes this taking her hand-held camera everywhere she goes and occasionally giving her insight on gleaning or philosophical thoughts on aging in a voice over. Varda has a lot to say in this film, mostly about gleaning but a lot about aging as well. It's interesting how she combines her own aging, shots of her graying hair and wrinkled hand, with decaying of food or things, shots of her collection of rotting heart-shaped potatoes. You'll feel as if a lot of what she does or says in the documentary has no connection with the topic on gleaning but you'll soon come to realize how it fits all together. It's not only about the gleaners she interviews but a personal travelogue on herself as a gleaner of frame shots, heart-shaped potatoes, driving trucks on the freeway, and a lot more. So, as a filmmaker, Varda gleaned all this footage into this captivating documentary. The original French title, Les glaneurs et la glaneuse, gives away what the documentary is about. In the film you can tell Varda has a lot of knowledge on art when she mentions artists who created paintings of how people used to glean. She actually presents some of these paintings and pays much attention to a particular painting of a gleaner alone who she comically imitates in the film. Although when you think about it, people gleaning in the streets is a depressing subject, Varda pokes fun at it especially on gleaning in general. She collects peoples different knowledge on what the French law says about gleaning and puts it all together as a way to make fun at how lenient the law is in France or how these people don't know the specifics of that law and quite honestly don't care. There is a lot that can be said about this documentary. I tried not to give too much specifics because I want people to see this film through their own eyes and to discover things in the film as I discovered them. Throughout the film you will discover Vardas interests and love for these people and the little details in life. In the end, you will come to enjoy them as much as she does. And you will end up looking for the beauty in your own life.

Red-125 The French film Les glaneurs et la glaneuse was shown in the U.S. as The Gleaners & I (2000). It was written and directed by Agnès Varda,Varda is a fascinating figure in the history of French filmmaking. Although she was making movies in France in the 60's, she wasn't actually a member of the French New Wave. Instead, Varda was part of a loosely joined group of directors that also included Alain Resnais and Chris Marker. (Although theoreticians place them into a group, Resnais said, "It is true that we are always ranked together, but what can you say we share apart from cats?") In any event Varda has a secure place in the history of French filmaking.The Gleaners is a movie about people who survive by searching for food or objects that others don't want, or, at least, don't want to work to find. In the country, gleaners find fruits and vegetables that remain after the harvest has been completed. In the cities they scavenge for food that has been thrown out as garbage, or that has been left behind when the vegetable markets close. They also claim discarded furniture and appliances for repair and resale.Whether by choice or by necessity, gleaners do their work at the fringes of the society. What they do isn't illegal, but it's not exactly mainstream either. However, this doesn't mean that the gleaners don't have their own fascinating personalities and informal codes of conduct.Varda interviews gleaners in both rural and urban areas. What she learns--as do we--is that they are very skilled at--and often proud of--what they do. As Varda shows us, it takes skill and knowledge to survive as a gleaner. You have to know where to look and when to look to get enough to eat, or to sell. The gleaners are interesting individuals, and they're happy to talk about what they do. Varda has taken what they told her, and fashioned it into a fascinating movie.The irony of this is clear when you look at the French title of the movie. The film is about gleaners, but it's also about one gleaner--Agnès Varda. Varda uses the bits and pieces offered to her by the gleaners, and fashions them into a movie. So, in that sense, she herself is the ultimate gleaner.We saw the film on the large screen at Rochester's Dryden Theatre, as part of the excellent Rochester Labor Film Festival. However, it should also work on DVD.

Ted The Gleaners and I is odd in that it hardly feels like a proper film at all: it's shot on visibly cheap MiniDV, its editing is consistently unpolished, and it delights in crossing the line from personal to indulgent in excess. It's obvious that these are all deliberate choices; the question is, would we care if it didn't have the name Agnès Varda on it? Ultimately, the film's amateurish style is somewhat deceptive: Varda demonstrates her talent for finding significance in the mundane, and strikes a number of compelling parallels in her examination of scavenger culture. The film does tend to coast on Varda's legendary new wave status at times, particularly as we linger on interviews and segments only tenuously related to the film's subject, but it's interesting as an example of a living legend embracing her medium's democratization: for all the good and bad it implies, she blends in seamlessly with the millions of talented people who own camcorders. -TK 10/21/10