Made by Agnès Varda, the Grande Dame of the
Nouvelle Vague, at the ripe age of 71, The
Gleaners and I, with its disarmingly self-reflexive digressions, playful
ruminations, self-deprecatory humour, left-wing irreverence and deceptively steadfast
defiance against incessant consumerism, served as a fascinating crystallization
of all her distinctive hallmarks as a filmmaker. It began with the conventional
explanation of “gleaming” using Millet’s famous oil-on-canvas painting as a
motif, viz. the practice of picking up agricultural harvest predominantly by
women (now defunct in France, but, ironically, still very much in vogue in a
country like, say, India); however, as one might expect, she used that as a springboard
and a point of departure as she expanded her canvas to explore and browse
through multifarious interpretations and implications of gleaming. Despite its crisp
length, therefore, it managed to cover an incredibly wide spectrum as Varda
crisscrossed France with a hand-held camera capturing engrossing vignettes – the
impoverished and socially marginalized in urban and rural settings rummaging
through discarded potatoes and various other food wastes (both agricultural and
from supermarkets); wealthy farm owners who allow gleaning and those who don’t;
folks who go about scavenging for abandoned household objects; artists and
amateurs for whom random scraps and junks comprise their art; a man who lives
on trashed food not because he can’t afford but because he considers such systematic
wastage unethical; a highly educated urban gleaner who spends nights teaching
immigrants; a gourmet chef who personally gleans the ingredients for his
restaurant. Filled with quirky wit, whimsical charm, and alternately affecting and
lacerating observations, this boldly political video essay also ultimately demonstrated
Varda too as a life-long gleaner – of images, stories and memories.
Director: Agnes Varda
Genre: Documentary/Essay Film/Road Movie
Language: French
Country: France
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