Les glaneurs et la glaneuse

1) Agnes Varda doesn't care that the quality of her digital camera is low; on the contrary, she loves is and is fascinated by how it captures things like her own hand (which she calls a "horror," which may or may not be a joke), and that love I think transfers to the audience. Anyway, her editing shows that this new digital quality gives more opportunities to capture life and images in exciting, vivid timing.

2) Gleaning isnt as inherently interesting as the people Varda talks to... At least that was my impression at first. And she talks to many of then. And guess what? These people, who vary from being old (and young) professionals to the destitute to old pros at this (even if theyre amateurs, specially if theyre amateurs), are so wholly rich and absorbing to watch that one realizes any filmmaker can make anything interesting so long as the subject matter connects. Varda connects with people, and art and with objects like potatoes and grapes and oysters and of course cats, and you feel that connection in your bones (if you're open to this, and Id fear meeting someone who was bored by this).

3) those rap songs are wondrous.

4) Varda wisely keeps her mistakes in - at one point while in a field she left her camera on and got a "dance" of a lens cap in front of her frame. Hey, why not put in a jazz track for a moment? And why put this in a movie about cleaning? Why not? Varda is all about the chances of life that happen in front of her (even finding a painting with gleaners while looking for something else). In a way this lends itself to what the film might really be about which is how people find joy in what they do. It might be stopping over to get things off the ground (and it may not be in a field, it may be more urban), or it may be filmmaking itself, which happens to be what Varda does (a curious point is when she meets someone whos a descendant of an early pioneer of cinema, ill leave it at that for you to see more).

5) If you are looking for this be about more concrete things, Varda has you covered too as there's the legal matters of gleaning and how it has been, how to say it, kindly outlawed in some parts of France (that is, some farmers dont want to see it gone, but that's the way it is). She even talks to legal officials - one in a field, naturally - and looks at a case of some kids tossing over trash cans. In this film, of course, it's not simply only about the joy or passion or even the compulsion of gleaning off fields, but waste and trash itself: how do we throw things out as a society and are okay with that? Can things that are discarded be reused, as clothes, as food, or even as art?

We may/are all be connected through what we throw out and what can be saved, which is a lot, and the difference is in who finds value in it or not. These people do, and Varda finds empathy, or at least wants us to. So while there's the legal questions, there's the real-world applications too. Theres politics underlying those who glean in rural places and those in the cities, but it's not too explicit. Just showing people picking through trash and leftovers is enough, because... Dont we all do it?

6) I continue to lament how much Varda I haven't seen till now.

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.

This film is a feast for anyone who loves film, photography or art in general. Agnes Varda takes the viewer along on a very personal exploration about what it means to be an artist. To glean means to gather whatever crops have been left in the field after a harvest and the film is on one level a straight documentary about gleaners in France, exploring the various reasons why they glean - survival, to feed the poor, for fun. But gleaning is revealed to be an apt metaphor for the process of making art, and so, perhaps on a deeper level, Varda is examining her role as a film maker, a "gleaner" of images and life moments. Regardless of why you might watch this film, I recommend it for the playfulness and beauty of the photography, and the complex and personal depth of Varda's narrative.

There are a number of reasons why I enjoyed this movie.

1.) I am into etymology. Most english words come through French through Latin and it was fun to attempt to match spoken word and subtitle.

2.) French rap. I am very much interested in the hip hop subculture and was amazed how similar theirs is to ours.

3.) Scenic shots. There were: orchards, fields, barren highways, a gypsie camp, a great many paintings, "junk" yards, and such.

4.) The camera shots. The journal/documentary filming allowed for several film taboos to be artfully waived. For example, the directors hands often purposefully find themselves in a shot, these were my favorite parts because of the witticisms she gave at these times. Also, an accidental shot were the camera lense gets in the way was made into another piece of ordinary object art.

5.) Also, I was intrigued by the comparison between classical gleaning, modern gleaning, and modern scavenging. See Dark Days for another good real life scavenger flick.

6.) Lastly, I felt a connection with many of the characters. People who were on the fringe of society and enjoyed it. Specifically, there were a few who had jobs and apartments, but still chose to rumage through old trash for their meals. "I've been living off trash for 10 years and I haven't been sick once," as on of them candidly stated.

Note - For me, these 6 items more than made this movie an enjoyable experience, but this is basically all there is, so be warned: There is no plot! Really it is just a bunch of stuff that happens, but feel that this helps the movie more than hurts.

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. 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). Gleaning also applies to our basic ability for survival. 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. Thus, faith and hope are gleaned in the face of disparity. Scientists glean facts and turn them into theory. We glean possibilities every time we use our imaginations. We glean memories when we write (James Joyce was probably the world's greatest literary gleaner). And psychiatrists pay attention to what others don't notice by gleaning beneath the stubborn surface of our egos. 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. But the film is even more than a fascinating documentary and social statement. 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." 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." It pertains to those who metaphorically glean the hidden mysteries and possibilities of our world (i.e. the gleaners of dreams and ideas). Come to think of it, film lovers and the best filmmakers are in fact, gleaners by that very definition. Agnes Varda has proved that she is one of the greatest gleaners of all time.