The Gleaners and I is a catalog of subjects candid, unsettling, touching, and sublime, gathered and arranged into a curious, playful, very Varda whole. With the new digital camera, I felt I could film myself, get involved as a filmmaker.”[17] Varda's choice to make a camcorder a primary tool of production as well as a central element of her film, can be seen as an implicit (if not explicit) recognition of a new digital era in documentary filmmaking. Festival de Cannes, n.d. Camera in hand, Varda interviews those for whom gleaning is a way of life, or an encompassing philosophy. This page was last edited on 5 March 2021, at 09:04. Web. The Gleaners and I – Agnes Varda At the 21st century’s eve, Agnes Varda released a particular documentary called The Gleaners and I. The gleaners of yesteryear were peasant women who rummaged for the bits of wheat left over from the harvest. In the worst times of our lives, whether it's the death of a friend or facing poverty or illness, there is a way of seeing things positively that helps us survive. "Refuseniks (Agnes Varda's DV Documentary, the 'Gleaners and I'). ZeitgeistFilms.com. Gleaners was distributed by Zeitgeist Films in New York, a company that has distributed films from such directors as Christopher Nolan and the Brothers Quay.[5]. Directed by Agnès Varda • 2000 • France Starring Agnès Varda Agnès Varda’s extraordinary late-career renaissance began with this wonderfully idiosyncratic, self-reflexive documentary in which the French cinema icon explores the world of modern-day gleaners: those living on the margins who survive by foraging for what society throws away. The Gleaners and I explores gleaning — the act of collecting food from farmers’ leftover crops after they have been commercially harvested. In a film about gleaning, Varda recognizes that she is a gleaner. Documentary filmmaker Agnes Varda studies the modern day foragers of France who now glean (or, gather) everything from grapes to garbage to clocks without hands in "The Gleaners & I." The film is notable for its use of a hand-held camera and for its unusual camera angles and techniques. An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as by the film's own director, Agnes Varda. I felt free at that time. (2000). n. d. Web. 99 on Portuges, Catherine. [10] In Paris it attracted 43,000 movie-goers during “the first nine weeks of its summer release.”[11] Haden Guest, the director of the Harvard Film Archive, hailed The Gleaners and I as “one of Varda's most powerful and popular films” (47). Even Varda, herself, remarked at the film's success, "I've never in my entire career felt that people have loved a film of mine as much as this one.”[12], Ruby Rich believes that the appeal of The Gleaners and I "is due in considerable part to Agnès Varda’s own presence. "The Gleaners and I." François, a young carpenter, lives a happy, uncomplicated life with his wife Thérèse and their two small children. Thus, faith and hope are gleaned in the face of disparity. IMDbPro. The same year it had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. 12 Nov 2010. "[13] Haden Guest argues that the ease with which Varda blends documentary and narrative technique is a key reason that her films continue to be so relevant, especially “as we witness a resurgence of documentary and a particularly strong interest in hybridized modes of fiction/nonfiction cinema” (48). Ebert, Roger. Festival de Cannes. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death. Use the HTML below. Varda also spends time with Louis Pons, who explains how junk is a "cluster of possibilities. Rich, B. Ruby. A film that presents the culture of gleaning in France. Web. Synopsis: Here and there in France. Most of the abandoned objects and shots she found, including the “dancing lens cap” and the heart-shaped potato, were “[strokes] of luck—and we immediately filmed it.”[5], Varda produced The Gleaners and I under Cine-Tamaris, the company she founded in 1954 and that has produced most of her previous films. Read Full Synopsis Cast + Crew Previous Cast Members More Cast Members. "The Gleaners and I." Web. Varda’s rumination on this art of “living off the leftovers of others” finds inspiration in both past and present, rural and urban, the political and the highly personal. the gleaners of dreams and ideas). A short film of interviews and protests at a rally to free Huey P. Newton. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? The Gleaners and I was first screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival ("Official Selection 2000"). With Bodan Litnanski, Macha Makeïeff, Agnès Varda, François Wertheimer. As she notes in her interview with Melissa Anderson “I had the feeling that this is the camera that would bring me back to the early short films I made in 1957 and 1958. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Filmmaker Agnes Varda looks at people who pick through society's leftovers for useful items. But gleaners are largely forbidden in the Burgundy wine region, where surplus grapes are deliberately thrown on the ground to keep foragers away. The Gleaners and I is a Documentary directed by Agnès Varda. They make the statement; they explain the subject better than anybody."[4]. It was entered into competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival ("Official Selection 2000"), and later went on to win awards around the world. "The Modest Gesture of the Filmmaker - an Interview with Agnes Varda." 99 on BBC's list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century.[2]. You pick ideas, you pick images, you pick emotions from other people, and then you make it into a film.”[14] To collect the objects of her gleaning, Varda chooses a digital video camera. Directed by Agnès Varda. The Gleaners & I Taking a seat on a theatre stage, she uses photos and film excerpts to provide an insight into her unorthodox oeuvre. In The Gleaners & I, Agnès Varda recruits a lawyer to stand in a field of cabbages in his long robes and explain how the practice is protected under French law. His father owns a garage and his mother is a hairdresser. Gleaners was filmed throughout France, in Beauce, Jura, Provence, the Pyrenees and in the suburbs of Paris. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. The Gleaners and I – Agnes Varda At the 21st century’s eve, Agnes Varda released a particular documentary called The Gleaners and I. Add the first question. "The Gleaners and I" places them in an ancient tradition. Rural French have a long tradition of gleaning, meaning to gather by hand the crops left behind after the harvest, often as a family or community practice. This film has an unexpected brief interview with the psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, plus follow-up segments on some of the featured people. Web. Check out our favorite stills from shows you can stream now on Paramount +. In addition to its festival honors, The Gleaners and I was “declared the best French film of 2000 by the French Union of Film Critics, which broke with tradition by not choosing a dramatic film.”[10] It also brought audiences to theaters for over eight months. Was this review helpful to you? "[3] The result of these subjects, Varda stated that "The more l met them, the more I could see I had nothing to make as a statement. Portraits of the people that occupy the small shops of the Rue Daguerre, Paris, where the filmmaker lived. Senses of Cinema 23 (2002): n. pag. Rent The Gleaners and I (2000) starring Bodan Litnanski and Agnès Varda on DVD and Blu-ray. Retrieved at American University. “The Gleaners and I” can claim to possess the most rare and precious of characteristics in a piece of art: kindness. Varda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris. We glean possibilities every time we use our imaginations. "[11] For Varda, digital cameras and editing equipment are simply tools that enable her to film by herself and to get closer to people "and to collapse the time lapse between wanting to film something and actually being able to do it."[11]. 305. 17 Nov 2010. The aesthetic, political and moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip. Varda travels the French countryside as well as the city to find and film not only field gleaners, but also urban gleaners and those connected to gleaners, including a wealthy restaurant owner whose ancestors were gleaners. For those who don’t know, gleaning consists of non-farmers collecting the year’s crops remains. It pertains to those who metaphorically glean the hidden mysteries and possibilities of our world (i.e. In a 2014 Sight & Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. The Gleaners and I, it is called, and the title emphasizes the autobiographical element in this small, compassionate film. Jake Wilson, on the other hand, conjectures that Varda (while perhaps not fully realizing it) tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and constructed a film that “embodies a quasi-anarchist ethos” that is built on a “resistance to consumerism, a suspicion of authority, and a desire to reconnect politics with everyday life.”, Varda's The Gleaners and I is notable in another regard, as well. She says the entire process took place between September 1999 and April 2000. CINEASTE 26.4 (2001): 24-7. list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century, "The Gleaners and I Reviews: Top Critics", Reviews and information from the Rotten Tomatoes website, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Documentary Film. The film spends time capturing the many aspects of gleaning and the many people who glean to survive. Read our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're watching in March, including "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," Boss Level, and Zack Snyder's Justice League. The term "gleaners" refers to a now-defunct strand of mainly female agricultural workers who flourished in feudal France. Agnès has come across gleaners, foragers, rummagers and scavengers. For those who don’t know, gleaning consists of non-farmers collecting the year’s crops remains. The Gleaners And I doesn’t make such heavy weather of the point, but Varda is careful to establish that historically gleaning has been “women’s work” – even if the majority of present-day gleaners in the film are male. Taking everything from surplus in the fields, to rubbish in trashcans, to oysters washed up after a storm, the "gleaners" range from those sadly in need to those hoping to recreate the community activity of centuries past, and still others who use whatever they find to cobble together a rough art. Agnes Varda returns to the people she met in her 2000 documentary on gleaning and meets some new people who were inspired by her first film. Agnès Varda’s documentary about the gathering of unclaimed food and objects is a testament to the necessity of creation. Yet, for Varda, “the first-person, artisan film-making encouraged by digital video [was] nothing new.”[11] While she acknowledges video's convenience, she downplays any larger significance: "What's missing in all this talk of digital technologies is the understanding that ... they're not ends in themselves. Cleo, a singer and hypochondriac, becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor. In one scene, she "catches" trucks on the freeway, forming a circle with her hand in front of the camera framing the truck in the center, then closing her hand as she drives past them. 6 Nov 2010. Anderson, M., and A. Varda. Since 1554, when King Henry IV affirmed the right of gleaning, it has been a practice protected by the French constitution, and today the men and women who sift through the dumpsters and markets of Paris are the descendants of gleaners who were painted by Millet and Van Gogh. 12 Nov 2010. Title: Take a look at what 100 movies made the … One can consume the stuff they glean, or they could recycle it into an art form, creating a whole new purpose for the object(s). This FAQ is empty. In one particular scene Varda, the filmmaker, forgets to turn off her camera. Written by View production, box office, & company info. Varda's other subjects include artists who incorporate recycled materials into their work, symbols she discovers during her filming (including a clock without hands and a heart-shaped potato), and the French laws regarding gleaning versus abandoned property. Agnès Varda, photographer, installation artist and pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague, is an institution of French cinema. The Gleaners and I Synopsis. "Official Selection 2000." "[9], The Gleaners and I went on to earn awards around the world including top honors at the Chicago International Film Festival, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, the European Film Awards, the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the National Society of Film Critics Awards (USA), the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Online Film Critics Society Awards and the Prague One World Film Festival ("The Gleaners & I"). Scientists glean facts and turn them into theory. rogerebert.com, 11 May 2001. [1] In 2016, the film appeared at No. Come to think of it, film lovers and the best filmmakers are in fact, gleaners by that very definition. Agnes Varda's documentary on murals in Los Angeles. An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as by the film's own director, Agnes Varda. The Gleaners and I (French: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) is a 2000 French documentary film by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. ", Anderson, M., and A. Varda. With François Wertheimer, Agnès Varda, Jean La Planche, Bodan Litnanski. It is a late-career personal essay by a filmmaker whose personal touch was incubated in one of the most personal of all national cinemas, the French New Wave of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. “I'm not poor, I have enough to eat,” says Varda, but she points to “another kind of gleaning, which is artistic gleaning. rogerebert.com. ", In order to find the subjects Varda claimed her method was to ask all the people she knew to talk to everyone - "the peasants, the owners, the farmers, the fruit growers - about our film. I said to my assistant, "Call everybody you know. Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Get unlimited DVD Movies & TV Shows delivered to your door with no … Web. "Press Kit." 20 Nov 2010. Follow the story of a couple who goes to a small French fishing village to try to solve the problems of their deteriorating marriage. By turns playful, philosophical, and subtly political, The Gleaners and I is a warmly human reflection on the contradictions of our consumerist world from an artist who, like her subjects, finds unexpected richness where few think to look. “Gleaning” as a homely figure for resistance and appropriation certainly has a … [6] The work was acclaimed by critics, achieving a score of 83/100 on Metacritic[7] and a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Charleen or How Long Has This Been Going On? Find out where The Gleaners and I is streaming, if The Gleaners and I is on Netflix, and get news and updates, on Decider. American Historical Review 106.1 2001. "The Modest Gesture of the Filmmaker - an Interview with Agnes Varda. Varda describes her filming and writing process as cinecriture: the process of writing narration, choosing shots, encountering subjects, editing, choosing music is “all chance working with me, all this is the film writing that I often talk about.”[5] She describes in the press kit for the film that she and her team would travel and shoot for roughly two weeks at a time and immediately proceed to edit while scouting for additional locations. In The Gleaners and I, Varda films herself combing her newly discovered gray hair, and there are many visuals of her aging hands. This film blew me away in how it depicted how much waste our society makes, and the myriad of ways in which those who glean what we discard benefit society. We glean memories when we write (James Joyce was probably the world's greatest literary gleaner). Agnes Varda returns to the people she met in her 2000 documentary on gleaning and meets some new people who were inspired by her first film. Agnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story. Highlighted by Varda's amusing narration. The Gleaners and I (French: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse; "The gleaners and the female gleaner", a reference to the director herself) is a 2000 French documentary film by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. The Gleaners and I takes a compassionate look at a rarely considered subculture whose individualism resonates powerfully with director Agnès Varda's humanistic approach. The aesthetic, political and moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip. "[9] In the Chicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington wrote, "In its frames, we see [Varda's] empathy, skill, curiosity, wit, poetry and passion for life: everything she has gleaned from a lifetime of love and movies. Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle argued, "Varda's subject matter is surprisingly rich, but it's her own energetic, curious nature that gives the film its snap. One such person is the teacher named Alain, an urban gleaner with a master's degree who teaches French to immigrants. Anonymous. "The Gleaners and I." 2 of 3 people found this review helpful. One day he meets Emilie, a clerk in the local post office. The result, The Gleaners and I, is a moving depiction of the people who — after the harvest — pick through the dirt to find potatoes and tomatoes left behind, scour the beach for oysters washed up after storms, pick grapes and figs that farmers reject, and go “dumpster diving” to recover discarded loaves of bread, sandwiches and other food. Director Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship. Varda calls this shot "The Dance of the Lens Cap". Agnes Varda has proved that she is one of the greatest gleaners of all time. "Trash And Treasure: The Gleaners And I." Recsk 1950-1953: The Story Of A Secret Concentration Camp In Communist Hungary, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film, Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Gleaners_and_I&oldid=1010407618, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Narcissister — “Narcissister Organ Player”, Hot Docs 2017 Women Directors: Meet Karin Jurschick — “Playing God”, NY Times: 25 Best Movies of the 21st Century, Sight & Sound: Greatest Documentaries of All Time. [8] Peter Rainer dubbed it "lyrically ramshackle". And psychiatrists pay attention to what others don't notice by gleaning beneath the stubborn surface of our egos. In a number of scenes Varda shows and discusses the camera itself and in so doing transforms a film about waste into a reflexive meditation on the art of digital documentary. For Varda, the decision was in many ways a practical one. In a 2014 Sight & Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. As the camera hangs to her side the filming proceeds, and the viewer can see the shifting ground and the dangling lens cap with a jazz music background. Amazon.com, Inc, n.d. But the film is even more than a fascinating documentary and social statement. ... See full summary ». Agnès Varda entered the extraordinarily rich final phase of her legendary career with this casually brilliant documentary-cum-self portrait. Year: 2000. Varda traveled alone to get most of her “gleaned” shots, scouting markets between 2 and 4 p.m. The Gleaners and I (2000, 82 min) The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002, 63 min) The Gleaners and I I don’t know why I’ve been holding off so long on the remainder of Varda’s filmography when I only have 4 programs left from the Criterion box set (now 3 after #10). Looking for something new to add to your Watchlist? There are many theories that we are all in essence stardust developed from fragments of 'the big bang' and quintessentially, this film is about "gleaners of stardust." The film tracks a series of gleaners as they hunt for food, knicknacks, thrown away items, and personal connection. While Varda did not pioneer the reflexive documentary (that honor goes to Dziga Vertov and his 1929 masterpiece Man with a Movie Camera),[15] her work has long been notable for its “reflexive and first-person tendencies.”[16], Another factor that makes The Gleaners and I especially noteworthy in the context of cinematic history is the fact that a filmmaker of Varda's stature chose to abandon high-end film equipment for low-end digital video. The whole family lives happily and likes to sing and to go to the movies. A young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Gleaning also applies to our basic ability for survival. Wilson, Jake. Jacquot Demy is a little boy at the end of the thirties. To glean is to see something beautiful or useful in something that is conventionally useless, pointless or ugly, and to make that thing even more beautiful or useful. Original title: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse. "Gleaners Over Gladiators. A film that presents the culture of gleaning in France. As one can see from the concepts listed above, it's also a celebration of seeing our world and ourselves as a "cluster of possibilities." ", Darke, Chris. History Cooperative Complete. It was entered into competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival ("Official Selection 2000"), and later went on to win awards around the world. The Gleaners & I movie reviews & Metacritic score: An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life, as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as by the film's own director, Agnès Varda. ", Guest, Haden. The Epic Film Challenge II#169 - The Gleaners and I (2000)Dir. 20 Nov 2010. Directed by Agnès Varda. “On this type of gleaning—of images, impressions, emotions—there is,” Varda insists midway through the movie, “no legislation.” An NYFF38 selection. Zeitgeist Films. Varda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris. Varda's city scavengers rifle through hastily abandoned open markets, restaurant Dumpsters, and piles of used furniture and appliances left by the side of … "Emotion Picture: Agnes Varda's Self-Reflexive the Beaches of Agnes and the Cinema of Generosity.". In 2016, the film appeared at No.