The Gleaners and I (2000)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Stella D

  
  a lovely documentary/road movie on the theme of recycling society's castoffs. director varda travels france examining the lifestyle, from the ancient custom of gleaning the fields after harvest to modern 'freegans' and artists using salvaged junk. fascinating… More
  a lovely documentary/road movie on the theme of recycling society's castoffs. director varda travels france examining the lifestyle, from the ancient custom of gleaning the fields after harvest to modern 'freegans' and artists using salvaged junk. fascinating characters, not least the filmmaker herself, who sees her art as gleaning images from everyday life

• Eric B

  
  This lovely, whimsical documentary is director Agnes Varda's tribute to the quaint practice of "gleaning" -- sifting through others' harvested farmland for leftover fruits and vegetables. This gentle foraging is not stigmatized like digging through trash (in fact,… More
  This lovely, whimsical documentary is director Agnes Varda's tribute to the quaint practice of "gleaning" -- sifting through others' harvested farmland for leftover fruits and vegetables. This gentle foraging is not stigmatized like digging through trash (in fact, it's often presented as a commendable effort to cut ecological waste) and almost all of the interviewed gleaners are surprisingly clean and articulate. Many farmers even accept the gleaners, and merely set up some light rules for their trespassing. "The Gleaners and I" is somewhat unfocused, especially considering it's only 82 minutes, and has quirky personal insertions that could be labeled self-indulgent. Varda not only narrates but intermittently appears onscreen, observing her body's aging, phantom-pinching trucks that she passes on the highway (shades of the Kids in the Hall's "I'm crushing your head" bit) and showing trivial lens-cap footage shot by accident. But such tangents are central to the film's homespun charm. She also becomes seduced by the gleaning concept herself, and gradually accumulates some chairs, figs, heart-shaped potatoes and a broken clock. "A clock without hands is my kind of thing," she smiles. "You don't see time passing." Eventually, she introduces city settings and broadens her scope. We see people who search for appliances, turn trash into artwork and live off found food. One of them has a Masters degree. Some legal aspects are explored, and there's also discussion of gleaning as depicted in paintings. Varda seems to just spontaneously follow the story wherever it leads her. It's a warm introduction to a peculiar, less-known corner of French culture.

• Lesley N

  
  French rambling shaggy-dog documentary about a) people who collect what others have left or dumped, and b) Agnes Varda, the filmmaker. Best watched if, as I was, you're equally happy spending time with both. <img… More
  French rambling shaggy-dog documentary about a) people who collect what others have left or dumped, and b) Agnes Varda, the filmmaker. Best watched if, as I was, you're equally happy spending time with both. <img src="http://i2.indiewire.com/images/uploads/i/2009vardadecade.jpg">

• MJS M

  
  A documentary from Agnes Varda about the world of hardcore recycling. Gleaners traditionally are people who go through fields after harvest and pickup the extra crops that the plows miss, here that definition is expanded to include people who rummage through trash and hunt for… More
  A documentary from Agnes Varda about the world of hardcore recycling. Gleaners traditionally are people who go through fields after harvest and pickup the extra crops that the plows miss, here that definition is expanded to include people who rummage through trash and hunt for abandoned appliances for things that can be salvaged. The gleaners are frequently very interesting, it?s the ?I? part I could have done without. Varda frequently butts in on what?s going on in order to make some weird hippie-ish observation, like one really stupid part where she includes footage she accidentally shot of her lens cap bobbing around and how she finds that to be just profound. Still the, world she?s documenting in 80% of the movie is fairly interesting and filled with colorful people and Varda doesn?t push a larger political point to far, a nice enough 82 minute watch despite some unneeded interruptions.

• Patrick D

  
  This film is incredibly fasinating. It's amazing to find out about a culture of refuse pickers in France, it really makes you think about what you throw away. The only problem with the film is that the film maker is very self indulgent, and it really tends to grind the film to a… More
  This film is incredibly fasinating. It's amazing to find out about a culture of refuse pickers in France, it really makes you think about what you throw away. The only problem with the film is that the film maker is very self indulgent, and it really tends to grind the film to a halt when she does this. Although, with the knowledge that Agnes Varda was a strong presence in the French Nouvelle Vague movement, I guess one can't be surprised can they? But when all is said and done it's a lovely little film that presents all sorts of gleaning, obvious and not.