THE GLEANERS AND I
aka LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE

Year: 2000
USA: Zeitgeist Films
Cast: Bodan Litnanski, Agnes Varda, François Wertheimer, Virginia Grey
Director: Agnes Varda
Country: France
USA: 82 mins
USA Release Date: 7 March 2001 (Limited Release - New York)


Synopsis

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. The aesthetic, political and finally moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip, and in previous generations were immortalized by the likes of Millet and Van Gogh. Varda isn't particularly interested in immortalizing today's gleaners but in investigating the reasons that lead the anonymous (desperate and quixotic both) and the celebrated (including a famous chef) to sift through our detritus. Along her journey, Varda constructs a portrait of France that is every bit as modern as the digital camera with which she does her filming, and in the process comes up with her finest, most effective work since VAGABOND.