Late one Sunday evening, dreading work the next day and coming off a fading headache, I browsed around for half an hour thinking about what to watch, not interested in dramatics or action, and eventually felt despondent. Then on a whim, I thought I’d watch something by Agnes Varda and picked The Gleaners And I (1999). It was exactly what I needed that night: a playful documentary about gleaners – the act of picking up items or produce from the ground – that was contemplative, fleet-footed and vibrant as an experience. Varda narrates and includes herself in the journey of moving from classic art paintings of gleaners in the fields – idealistic workers collecting grains, vegetables and fruit, etc – to the realism of gleaning in contemporary times – people picking up the leftovers after machines have plowed through a potato field to street people picking through the rubbish in cities for something to eat. Shot on a portable digital camera and edited with wit and thought, Varda’s film is episodic and made with inspiration and improvisation, juggling its tones beautifully, funny and warm in one moment, thoughtful and philosophical in another. Yet The Gleaners And I is always attuned to the stark consequences of industrialised production, class division between landowners and gleaners, and legal framings driven by capitalism around when those who are poor and hungry can take what they can eat. The film itself is an act of gleaning, picking up various images and stories to present something entirely new. Varda as a filmmaker is curious and responsive to where, what and who she is filming (finding potatoes shaped like hearts in the fields), and often finding inventive ways to represent something (like a lawyer in a cabbage patch in full regalia describing the law of the land). I really enjoyed where the movie took me and was glad to finally catch up with this late period Varda classic. Available to stream on Mubi as part of the ‘Voila Varda’ collection. Recommended.
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