| [1] In 2016, the film appeared at No. Anderson, M., and A. Varda. "Refuseniks (Agnes Varda's DV Documentary, the 'Gleaners and I'). The term "gleaners" refers to a now-defunct strand of mainly female agricultural workers who flourished in feudal France. Zeitgeist Films. Highlighted by Varda's amusing narration. In 2000, Agnès Varda travelled the French countryside to study the world of foragers and scavengers called The Gleaners. Festival de Cannes, n.d. In The Gleaners and I, Varda films herself combing her newly discovered gray hair, and there are many visuals of her aging hands. Web. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism. Amazon.com, Inc, n.d. 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. Gleaners are individuals who search farmers' fields for produce the mechanical harvesting equipment may have left behind. She says the entire process took place between September 1999 and April 2000. In one particular scene Varda, the filmmaker, forgets to turn off her camera. In a film about gleaning, Varda recognizes that she is a gleaner. Web. The gleaning work has since time immemorial been the work of women even if current gleaners are men. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later near you. Gleaners was filmed throughout France, in Beauce, Jura, Provence, the Pyrenees and in the suburbs of Paris. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. Directed by Agnès Varda • 2002 • France Starring Agnès Varda Agnès Varda’s charming follow-up to her acclaimed documentary THE GLEANERS AND I is a deceptively unassuming grace note that takes us deeper into the world of those who find purpose and beauty in the refuse of society. Synopsis Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. "The Gleaners and I." "Press Kit." 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. The Gleaners is an oil painting produced in 1857 by French painter Jean François Millet. ENTER CITY, STATE OR ZIP CODE GO. ", Darke, Chris. 99 on BBC's list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century. Also sign me up for FanMail to get updates on all things movies: tickets, special offers, screenings + more. "Gleaners Over Gladiators. 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. But as Agnès Varda finds in her warm, thoughtful documentary The Gleaners And I, the efficiency of modern farming equipment has curbed what was once a communal activity. "The Gleaners and I." Agnès has come across gleaners, foragers, rummagers and scavengers. American Historical Review 106.1 2001. Varda calls this shot "The Dance of the Lens Cap". For Varda, the decision was in many ways a practical one. "[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"). ", Guest, Haden. "Emotion Picture: Agnes Varda's Self-Reflexive the Beaches of Agnes and the Cinema of Generosity.". Fandango FANALERT® Sign up for a FANALERT® to find out when tickets are available in your area. "The Gleaners and I" places them in an ancient tradition. One such person is the teacher named Alain, an urban gleaner with a master's degree who teaches French to immigrants. 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. 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. The piece of oil painting vividly depicts the nineteenth-century French rural life, with a rich flavor of harvest. Varda likens her filmmaking to the gleaning of ideas and images from interior and exterior journeys and admits to being a gleaner herself, which gives her a special connection with her subjects in this honest and intriguing documentary. "Trash And Treasure: The Gleaners And I." This film has an unexpected brief interview with the psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, plus follow-up segments on some of the featured people. | In a 2014 Sight & Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. They make the statement; they explain the subject better than anybody."[4]. These women incarnate the rural working-class. The name of the painting was inspired by a manufacturing company having the same name. In a 2014 Sight & Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. In an apple-growing region, Varda learns that gleaners must be registered in order to follow an orchard’s pickers, who leave 10 tons unpicked, according to an owner she talks to. Rich, B. Ruby. This painting depicts a scene of a field after the harvest where three women were gleaning the grains of wheat. In 2000 Agnès Varda travelled the French countryside to study the world of foragers and scavengers called The Gleaners. 6 Nov 2010. Festival de Cannes. Agnès Varda, France, 2000, 82 mins, French with English subtitles A documentary about finding value where others see nothing, this beautiful and eccentric work is the result of Agnès Varda spending a year touring France to find and talk to the people who forage and salvage what is disposed of by others. Web. ZeitgeistFilms.com. Summary: 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. 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. 20 Nov 2010. Gleaners are simply people who have learned to value the mundane, trashy and ephemeral, and it’s no great shock that in our society these downgraded categories should be associated with women –particularly older women who aren’t considered glamorous. 17 Nov 2010. | The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; this was received poorly by the French upper classes. 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. Be the first to contribute! 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 film spends time capturing the many aspects of gleaning and the many people who glean to survive. Parents Guide. ", 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. In potato fields, the poor collect what potatoes can be found but also from crops that are rejected because of minor damage or size. 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. 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. 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. "The Gleaners and I." Varda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris. rogerebert.com. Plot Keywords 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. 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]. 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. Original title: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse. Jean-François Millet (French), The Gleaners, 1857, oil on canvas, 33 x 43 in (83.5 x 110 cm) (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) Speakers: Drs. The film present the feminism suffering that has been historically been established. “I'm not poor, I have enough to eat,” says Varda, but she points to “another kind of gleaning, which is artistic gleaning. For those who don’t know, gleaning consists of non-farmers collecting the year’s crops remains. In the Burgundy region she finds out that gleaning vintage grapes is illegal. The Gleaners (Des glaneuses) is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. The Gleaners and I – Agnes Varda At the 21st century’s eve, Agnes Varda released a particular documentary called The Gleaners and I. 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. "[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. Gleaners are individuals who search farmers' fields for produce the mechanical harvesting equipment may have left behind. rogerebert.com, 11 May 2001. History Cooperative Complete. 12 Nov 2010. (Note: 'Gleaning' describes the activity of collecting leftover corn and other crops from farmer's fields after the harvest.) The Gleaners and I, Dir. Retrieved at American University. 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. ", Anderson, M., and A. Varda. Charleen or How Long Has This Been Going On? Varda traveled alone to get most of her “gleaned” shots, scouting markets between 2 and 4 p.m. n. d. Web. Agnès Varda’s charming follow-up to her acclaimed documentary The Gleaners and I is a deceptively unassuming grace note that takes us deeper into the world of those who find purpose and beauty in the refuse of society. 305. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. Taglines 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. The Gleaners - now seen as a pioneering work of modern art - is a perfect example of Millet's profound respect for the timeless dignity of human labour. Ebert, Roger. The focus however is that in a land of plenty, there is a great of waste while many are left wanting. Web. 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. 12 Nov 2010. Synopsis: Here and there in France. 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. The same year it had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016, the film appeared at No. The Gleaners (Des glaneuses) is an oil painting, 83.8 cm × 111.8 cm (33 in × 44 in), created by French realist painter Jean-Francois Millet in 1857. Pickers on the other hand are those who collect non-food items put out for refuse collection. [8] Peter Rainer dubbed it "lyrically ramshackle". Wilson, Jake. 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. Varda also spends time with Louis Pons, who explains how junk is a "cluster of possibilities. 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. "Official Selection 2000." I said to my assistant, "Call everybody you know. The Gleaners and I, it is called, and the title emphasizes the autobiographical element in this small, compassionate film. The Gleaners and I (2000) ★★★★ / ★★★★ Toward the end of Agnès Varda’s fascinating and compassionate documentary “The Gleaners and I,” we meet a man in the streets of Paris who visits outdoor markets to pick up thrown away food and eats them right there on the spot. Synopsis "The Modest Gesture of the Filmmaker - an Interview with Agnes Varda." 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. 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. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. A film that presents the culture of gleaning in France. Year: 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 Gleaners and I is a Documentary directed by Agnès Varda. "The Modest Gesture of the Filmmaker - an Interview with Agnes Varda. 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. Des glaneuses also called Les glaneuses [Gleaners, also called, The Gleaners] True to one of Millet's favourite subjects – peasant life – this painting is the culmination of ten years of research on the theme of the gleaners. These can simply be recycled or used to produce self-styled art. The film tracks a series of gleaners as they hunt for food, knicknacks, thrown away items, and personal connection. [6] The work was acclaimed by critics, achieving a score of 83/100 on Metacritic[7] and a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker 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. In urban areas gleaners will pick through garbage cans to collect whatever food items have been thrown by supermarkets. It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. Senses of Cinema 23 (2002): n. pag. 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. 20 Nov 2010. In this documentary director Agnès Varda deals with the issue of wealth and poverty in modern day France by exploring the world of gleaners and pickers. Portuges, Catherine. I felt free at that time. The Gleaners (Des glaneuses) is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. "[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]. 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 Gleaners and I (French: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) is a 2000 French documentary film by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; this was received poorly by the French upper classes. Web. The gleaner and I is much of a political film that even though it offers a sequence of poetic metaphor and encounters in lieu of unambiguous sound arguments. IMDbPro. 99 on BBC's list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century.[2]. SUMMARY 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. The film is notable for its use of a hand-held camera and for its unusual camera angles and techniques. In potato fields, the poor collect what potatoes can be found but also from crops that are rejected because of minor damage or size. [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). "[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). The Gleaners and I was first screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival ("Official Selection 2000"). An 1867 painting by Jean-Francois Millet inspired documentarian Varda to cross the French countryside to videotape people who scavenge. It was entered into competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival ("Official Selection 2000"), and later went on to win awards around the world. 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. By its strictest definition, "gleaning" describes the practice of gathering crops after the harvest, whether it's wheat stalks and corncobs on the ground, apples left in the orchard, or grapes still hanging off the vine. 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. "[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. 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. Storyline 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. This page was last edited on 5 March 2021, at 09:04. International film Festival ( `` Official Selection 2000 '' ) 1 ] in 2016, the,... Varda calls this shot `` the Modest Gesture of the 21st century [! They explain the subject better than anybody. `` [ 4 ] my,. Harvesting equipment may have left behind September 1999 and April 2000 French rural life, with a flavor. 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