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You may remember director Agnès Varda from her 1986 film, VAGABOND. But over the last five decades, the `grandmother of French New Wave' has completed 29 other works, most showing her affection, bemusement, outrage, and wide-ranging curiosity for humanity.

Varda's most recent effort-the first filmed with a digital videocamera-focuses on gleaners, those who gather the spoils left after a harvest, as well as those who mine the trash. Some completely exist on the leavings; others turn them into art, exercise their ethics, or simply have fun. The director likens gleaning to her own profession-that of collecting images, stories, fragments of sound, light, and color.

In this hybrid of documentary and reflection, Varda raises a number of philosophical questions. Has the bottom line replaced our concern with others' well-being, even on the most essential level of food? What happens to those who opt out of our consumerist society? And even, What constitutes--or reconstitutes--art?

Along this road trip, she interviews plenty of French characters. We meet a man who has survived almost completely on trash for 15 years. Though he has a job and other trappings, for him it is `a matter of ethics.' Another, who holds a master's degree in biology, sells newspapers and lives in a homeless shelter, scavenges food from market, and spends his nights teaching African immigrants to read and write.

Varda is an old hippie, and her sympathies clearly lie with such characters who choose to live off the grid. She takes our frenetically consuming society to task and suggests that learning how to live more simply is vital to our survival.

At times we can almost visualize her clucking and wagging her finger-a tad heavy-handedly advancing her agenda. However, the sheer waste of 25 tons of food at a clip is legitimately something to cluck about. And it is her very willingness to make direct statements and NOT sit on the fence that Varda fans most enjoy, knowing that her indignation is deeply rooted in her love of humanity.

The director interjects her playful humor as well-though it's subtle, French humor that differs widely from that of, say, Tom Green. Take the judge in full robes who stands in a cabbage field citing the legality of gleaning chapter and verse.

Quirky and exuberant, Varda, 72, is at an age where she's more concerned with having fun with her craft than impressing anyone. With her handheld digital toy, she pans around her house and pauses to appreciate a patch of ceiling mold. When she later forgets to turn off her camera, she films `the dance of the lens cap.'

One of the picture's undercurrents is the cycle of life-growth, harvest, decay. She often films her wrinkled hands and speaks directly about her aging process, suggesting that her own mortality is much on her mind. The gleaners pluck the fruits before their decay, as Varda lives life to the fullest, defying the inevitability of death. Toward the movie's end, she salvages a Lucite clock with no hands. As she films her face passing behind it, she notes, `A clock with no hands is my kind of thing.'

If you'd be the first to grab a heart-shaped potato from the harvest, or make a pile of discarded dolls into a totem pole, THE GLEANERS is probably your kind of thing.

Yeah, it was that good. I was introduced to the French New Wave when I was in college and I was instantly a fan. Of course I loved Godard and Truffaut but I was also a always a fan of Varda's work. The one woman allowed run with "the boy's club".

Even in her later years in 2000, the mark of the Nouvelle Vague was still evident in her work. Shot on video at a time when things looked like they were shot on video, this movie held true to all of the same ideals that Varda stood for 40 years earlier. There wasn't a lot of time or money spent on lighting and capturing the perfect image but what was lacking was made up for with true cinematography and framing of the shots. Visually the movie is both cheap and no frills and meticulous and artistic.

But like any good documentary, Varda's vision and message trumps any superficial aspect of the film-making. The message that there is beauty in every aspect of our existence regardless of how insignificant we think it is resonates throughout the story and will stick with you long after the movie has ended.

Jean Francois Millet, the French painter of the Barbizon school, seems to have been the inspiration for Agnes Varda's interesting documentary "Les glaneurs et la glaneuse". In fact, Ms. Varda makes it a point to take us along to the French countryside where Millet got the inspiration for his masterpiece "Les Glaneurs". Like in his other paintings, Millet comments about the peasantry working the fields in most of his canvases. One can see the poverty in his subjects as they struggle to gather crops for their employers.

Ms. Varda takes a humanistic approach to another type of activity in which she bases her story. In fact, the people one sees in the film are perhaps the descendants of the gleaners of Millet's time, except they are bringing whatever is left behind once the machinery takes care of gathering the best of each crop, leaving the rest to rot in the fields.

Agnes Varda takes a trip through her native France to show us the inequality of a system that produces such excesses that a part of it has to be dumped because it doesn't meet standards. On the one hand, there is such abundance, and on the other, one sees how some of the poor people showcased in the documentary can't afford to buy the basics and must resort to take it on their own to get whatever has been left in order to survive.

With this documentary, Agnes Varda shows an uncanny understanding to the problems most of these people are facing.

1) Agnes Varda doesn't care that the quality of her digital camera is low; on the contrary, she loves is and is fascinated by how it captures things like her own hand (which she calls a "horror," which may or may not be a joke), and that love I think transfers to the audience. Anyway, her editing shows that this new digital quality gives more opportunities to capture life and images in exciting, vivid timing.

2) Gleaning isnt as inherently interesting as the people Varda talks to... At least that was my impression at first. And she talks to many of then. And guess what? These people, who vary from being old (and young) professionals to the destitute to old pros at this (even if theyre amateurs, specially if theyre amateurs), are so wholly rich and absorbing to watch that one realizes any filmmaker can make anything interesting so long as the subject matter connects. Varda connects with people, and art and with objects like potatoes and grapes and oysters and of course cats, and you feel that connection in your bones (if you're open to this, and Id fear meeting someone who was bored by this).

3) those rap songs are wondrous.

4) Varda wisely keeps her mistakes in - at one point while in a field she left her camera on and got a "dance" of a lens cap in front of her frame. Hey, why not put in a jazz track for a moment? And why put this in a movie about cleaning? Why not? Varda is all about the chances of life that happen in front of her (even finding a painting with gleaners while looking for something else). In a way this lends itself to what the film might really be about which is how people find joy in what they do. It might be stopping over to get things off the ground (and it may not be in a field, it may be more urban), or it may be filmmaking itself, which happens to be what Varda does (a curious point is when she meets someone whos a descendant of an early pioneer of cinema, ill leave it at that for you to see more).

5) If you are looking for this be about more concrete things, Varda has you covered too as there's the legal matters of gleaning and how it has been, how to say it, kindly outlawed in some parts of France (that is, some farmers dont want to see it gone, but that's the way it is). She even talks to legal officials - one in a field, naturally - and looks at a case of some kids tossing over trash cans. In this film, of course, it's not simply only about the joy or passion or even the compulsion of gleaning off fields, but waste and trash itself: how do we throw things out as a society and are okay with that? Can things that are discarded be reused, as clothes, as food, or even as art?

We may/are all be connected through what we throw out and what can be saved, which is a lot, and the difference is in who finds value in it or not. These people do, and Varda finds empathy, or at least wants us to. So while there's the legal questions, there's the real-world applications too. Theres politics underlying those who glean in rural places and those in the cities, but it's not too explicit. Just showing people picking through trash and leftovers is enough, because... Dont we all do it?

6) I continue to lament how much Varda I haven't seen till now.

This film is a feast for anyone who loves film, photography or art in general. Agnes Varda takes the viewer along on a very personal exploration about what it means to be an artist. To glean means to gather whatever crops have been left in the field after a harvest and the film is on one level a straight documentary about gleaners in France, exploring the various reasons why they glean - survival, to feed the poor, for fun. But gleaning is revealed to be an apt metaphor for the process of making art, and so, perhaps on a deeper level, Varda is examining her role as a film maker, a "gleaner" of images and life moments. Regardless of why you might watch this film, I recommend it for the playfulness and beauty of the photography, and the complex and personal depth of Varda's narrative.

The French film Les glaneurs et la glaneuse was shown in the U.S. as The Gleaners & I (2000). It was written and directed by Agnès Varda,

Varda is a fascinating figure in the history of French filmmaking. Although she was making movies in France in the 60's, she wasn't actually a member of the French New Wave. Instead, Varda was part of a loosely joined group of directors that also included Alain Resnais and Chris Marker. (Although theoreticians place them into a group, Resnais said, "It is true that we are always ranked together, but what can you say we share apart from cats?") In any event Varda has a secure place in the history of French filmaking.

The Gleaners is a movie about people who survive by searching for food or objects that others don't want, or, at least, don't want to work to find. In the country, gleaners find fruits and vegetables that remain after the harvest has been completed. In the cities they scavenge for food that has been thrown out as garbage, or that has been left behind when the vegetable markets close. They also claim discarded furniture and appliances for repair and resale.

Whether by choice or by necessity, gleaners do their work at the fringes of the society. What they do isn't illegal, but it's not exactly mainstream either. However, this doesn't mean that the gleaners don't have their own fascinating personalities and informal codes of conduct.

Varda interviews gleaners in both rural and urban areas. What she learns--as do we--is that they are very skilled at--and often proud of--what they do. As Varda shows us, it takes skill and knowledge to survive as a gleaner. You have to know where to look and when to look to get enough to eat, or to sell. The gleaners are interesting individuals, and they're happy to talk about what they do. Varda has taken what they told her, and fashioned it into a fascinating movie.

The irony of this is clear when you look at the French title of the movie. The film is about gleaners, but it's also about one gleaner--Agnès Varda. Varda uses the bits and pieces offered to her by the gleaners, and fashions them into a movie. So, in that sense, she herself is the ultimate gleaner.

We saw the film on the large screen at Rochester's Dryden Theatre, as part of the excellent Rochester Labor Film Festival. However, it should also work on DVD.

This is a film-essay about the word "glaneur" (which means "collector" and much more). And what Agnes Varda finds on her filmic search through france and collects to this little film is just a masterpiece. Moving, funny and clever. Every scene adds something more to the words meaning and opens new ways of thinking obout it. By that the film introduces us to people we would never meet in our lives (unfortunately including the charming director Agnes Varda) and can not forget anymore.

Some parts of "The Gleaners & I" is loved. However, had the movie been entitled "The Gleaners" and stuck to that theme, it would have been much better. Still, the gleaners aspect of the film is quite compelling.

The documentarian and widow of Jacques Demy ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), Agnès Varda, made this film on videotape using what looks like a home video camera. This isn't necessarily a complaint-- especially since much of the theme of this film is making use of discarded items--and you usually don't discard state of the art cameras and other film equipment. The film begins by showing the famous Millet painting "The Gleaners" at the d'Orsay Museum in Paris and then showing how gleaning like they did in the old days is alive and well. Let me explain a bit. In the old days (such as in the book of Ruth in the Bible), poor folks were allowed to pick through the fields once the crops were harvested. Anything they wanted to take (the castoffs) they were allowed to take. Just like this today people in France have been able to take advantage of this in a variety of settings. Seeing tons of unwanted potatoes which were going to simply rot being picked by folks for useful potatoes (over or under-sized ones) made me quite happy since it avoids waste. Other ways to avoid waste are shown such as dumpster divers, artists who use garbage and people who pick through restaurant and grocer garbage piles all reminds us how wasteful modern society is and the film has a great point to make.

Unfortunately, too often the filmmaker loses focus--either by going off on tangents or by focusing the film too much on herself or her desire to be artsy (such as filming mildew spots in her own home). It was like Ms. Varda wasn't sure if the film should be about her or the pickers. Clearly it SHOULD have been all about the pickers. When she's focused on this, the film is like gold! When she doesn't, it becomes tedious and, dare I say, a bit self-indulgent. Interestingly, in her follow- up film where Varda revisits people two years later, one of her most important interviewees says exactly that when she asks him what he didn't like about the film...and then she has some middle-class lady come up to the guy (like a surrogate to the filmmaker) and argue with the guy about this!! She DID ask him about his opinion!!!

There are a number of reasons why I enjoyed this movie.

1.) I am into etymology. Most english words come through French through Latin and it was fun to attempt to match spoken word and subtitle.

2.) French rap. I am very much interested in the hip hop subculture and was amazed how similar theirs is to ours.

3.) Scenic shots. There were: orchards, fields, barren highways, a gypsie camp, a great many paintings, "junk" yards, and such.

4.) The camera shots. The journal/documentary filming allowed for several film taboos to be artfully waived. For example, the directors hands often purposefully find themselves in a shot, these were my favorite parts because of the witticisms she gave at these times. Also, an accidental shot were the camera lense gets in the way was made into another piece of ordinary object art.

5.) Also, I was intrigued by the comparison between classical gleaning, modern gleaning, and modern scavenging. See Dark Days for another good real life scavenger flick.

6.) Lastly, I felt a connection with many of the characters. People who were on the fringe of society and enjoyed it. Specifically, there were a few who had jobs and apartments, but still chose to rumage through old trash for their meals. "I've been living off trash for 10 years and I haven't been sick once," as on of them candidly stated.

Note - For me, these 6 items more than made this movie an enjoyable experience, but this is basically all there is, so be warned: There is no plot! Really it is just a bunch of stuff that happens, but feel that this helps the movie more than hurts.

I find the nearly universal praise heaped on this film puzzling. I think critics are praising Varda's career, or her past works, or her reputation--everything but this film, which is disjointed, unfocused, and overall excruciatingly boring. This having been said, I should point out that it does have some fascinating moments, especially when we realize that some of the gleaners don't have to be doing this--they're doing it by choice. It's worth viewing for a glimpse into a style of life rarely seen; just don't watch it late at night.

At one point in this unusual and very interesting documentary by French New Wave director Agnes Varda (born, 1928!) she ties it together by showing art made from "gleaned" articles--that is, trash thrown away and made into objects of art by artists.

Of course it is trite to recall that "one man's trash is another man's treasure," but it is so. How dearly archeologists love ancient midden sites, and how much we can learn about the ancients from their trash. But Varda is here to show us that we can also learn a lot about modern people from what they throw away, and from what is gleaned, and from the gleaners themselves. I thought the guy who ate (grazed almost) as he went through the market place after closing was interesting. Clearly going through the trash is something instinctive with humans: no doubt it comes from our prehistoric past when we were hunters and gatherers.

The main focus here is on gleaning fruits and vegetables left behind by mechanized pickers. It is interesting to note that there are laws going back hundreds of years that regulate gleaners. (Varda puts a French lawyer on camera to quote some relevant law.) I was fascinated to see that there are dumpster divers in France. In America dumpster diving has been a big deal since at least the sixties. Today there are Web sites devoted to dumpster diving, and I personally know some people who dumpster dive for fun and profit. It was also interesting to see just which fruits and vegetable are gleaned from the ground and from the trees and vines and plants left after the harvest, and to hear from the people who do the gleaning. Varda shows mounds of potatoes left behind, and we learn that both potatoes too small and potatoes too big are discarded by the producers. (In America, large potatoes are not only not discarded, they bring a higher price.) Interesting too were her interviews with French gypsies and others who derive a good part of their subsistence from gleaning.

I enjoyed seeing parts of France not normally seen on the screen or by tourists. In fact in some ways this documentary could serve as a kind of travelog so widely does Varda and her camera travel about the French countryside and cities.

See this for the Grande Dame of French cinema, Agnes Varda, auteur of the innovative documentary Cléo from 5 to 7 (1961) and other films who is now 77 years old and still going strong.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

I'm a huge fan of all things French New Wave. I went into this widely touted movie expecting to see a masterful, well-executed documentary about scavengers — a segment of society whose struggles aren't often chronicled.

Instead, I got a rambling, unfocused picture that focused way too much on the director herself. Every time the movie started to get good and really engage my interest, Varda would break away from the subject she was documenting either to film herself or prattle away while filming a bunch of trucks on the freeway. What's more, she even saw fit to put in footage where she left the camera running as she carried it, calling the scene "The Dance of the Lens Cap," or some such thing. And while you can make statements that Varda, like her subjects, is using footage other directors just throw away, there's a reason directors don't use that footage. It's almost as if some studio executive has decided to play a prank on snooty French film snobs, handing a camera to a goofball old woman who once upon a time made decent movies. I appear to be one of the few who didn't fall for it.

To glean is to see something beautiful or useful in something that is conventionally useless, pointless or ugly, and to make that thing even more beautiful or useful. One can consume the stuff they glean, or they could recycle it into an art form, creating a whole new purpose for the object(s). Gleaning also applies to our basic ability for survival. In the worst times of our lives, whether it's the death of a friend or facing poverty or illness, there is a way of seeing things positively that helps us survive. Thus, faith and hope are gleaned in the face of disparity. Scientists glean facts and turn them into theory. We glean possibilities every time we use our imaginations. We glean memories when we write (James Joyce was probably the world's greatest literary gleaner). And psychiatrists pay attention to what others don't notice by gleaning beneath the stubborn surface of our egos. This film blew me away in how it depicted how much waste our society makes, and the myriad of ways in which those who glean what we discard benefit society. But the film is even more than a fascinating documentary and social statement. As one can see from the concepts listed above, it's also a celebration of seeing our world and ourselves as a "cluster of possibilities." There are many theories that we are all in essence stardust developed from fragments of 'the big bang' and quintessentially, this film is about "gleaners of stardust." It pertains to those who metaphorically glean the hidden mysteries and possibilities of our world (i.e. the gleaners of dreams and ideas). Come to think of it, film lovers and the best filmmakers are in fact, gleaners by that very definition. Agnes Varda has proved that she is one of the greatest gleaners of all time.

I don't think I'll ever look at Millet's painting, The Gleaners, the same way after seeing this lovely film from Agnès Varda. In looking at the modern practice of gleaning in many of its forms, in the gentlest way possible Varda casts a critical eye over a world where an enormous amount of food goes to waste while so many are hungry. She also shows many examples of how the disposed output of consumerism can be turned into artwork, which is perhaps recycling in its purest form. That may sound rather dry and predictable, but it's absolutely not - the film meanders in all sorts of directions and it's done in such a delightful, playful way by Varda.

One of the more moving aspects of the film is how it reveals not only real need in the people living on the food they find in the garbage, but that there is often a higher morality in recognizing how wrong it is to waste, and a sense of sharing in these little communities. There is a rather profound link between those sifting through trash to survive, others who do so out of a mix of opportunity and personal ethos, and those out gleaning in fields after machinery has left large quantities of food behind, either because it's in hard to reach places or it's misshapen in some way. That latter group includes a gourmet chef, and Varda herself who becomes enamored with some heart-shaped potatoes (oh my heart when I watch her).

This isn't an in-depth documentary that tries to get to the bottom of things like why expiration dates on food are always so conservative, the possible safety issues with finding food in a dumpster, why the government itself isn't gleaning unwanted food and getting it into the hands of those who need it, or the environmental implications to wasted food. It didn't need to do all that though. It's quite powerful in showing us portraits of a wide spectrum of people, and a big reason for that is Varda's humanity and grace, which is inspiring. Oh, and that moment where she's drawn to the clock with no hands, my goodness, that was so touching.

At least a film has been made with courage,determination and above all without caring at all about what the film market would say.Who in the world had thought that someone would take the trouble of making a documentary about people who do nothing but sort out eatables from huge piles of junk.The one and the only unofficial grand mother of French new wave cinema Agnes Varda has embraced modern Digital video technology in a nice way thereby enabling us viewers to watch hitherto unknown facets of impecunious people's lives in France:a country which is always feeling proud of its state controlled socialist traditions. The film is a proof that documentary tradition is still very much alive in France and most of the established veterans like Varda do like to dabble in such uncommon ventures.The best parts of this documentary revolve around Varda as she takes a tour of France on her hunt for the gleaners.This is really France uncut,a France you have all been longing to see but never got a chance to do so.Voilà explore France with this film.

This film concerns gleaners, people who collects what other people throw away, food and junk etc. We met them at a potato field, on a cabbage field and on the markets. People who dont hesitate to look in the nearest thrash can for both breakfast and dinner.

We meet a man who always arrive to the fruit market after closing time to get parsley, and spends the evening teaching african immigrants how to read and write. And another man who builds high towers out of junk. People who are very poor, outside the community, but mostly happy.

One cant help to wonder why so food producers throw away so much when people go hungry. And why are todays society so focused on buying new things all the time, instead of repair things when they break.

I love this film so much. In addition to all the insights from previous comments, I'd like to add that there are no moral judgements made on Varda's part about not only the people she meets who are gleaners, but also those were are on the opposing side. The harshest words she says about them is that "they don't want to be nice".

I think if I met most of the people in this documentary on the street, I would simply pass them by (without knowing or wanting to know anything about them), but Varda has such a knack in finding their humanity, their beauty, that I am humbled by her curiosity and love of her fellow human beings. In the accompanying film on the DVD - made two years after the film, a woman on the street points out that after watching this film you want to become a better human being. What else is there to say after that? It is also important to note that it is a film that resonates, for me anyway, so that the desire to be a better human being is not a fleeting desire felt only after watching the film, it does stay with you.

I work for a homeless services agency as the food services manager. I have found that there is a large amount of gleaning in our communities. This movie affirmed my inclusion of gleaned food in our program. The food that I receive from gleaners tend to be more nutritious than much of the food that is readily available to low income individuals and families. I hope many see this film and understand that the elements in this movie are much larger than the french culture. I feel that I know of the American equivalent of many of the people featured in this documentary. It's interesting how many do this to survive and how many do it as a personal, political and ethical choice. I am very thankful that this movie was made. Enjoy.

Yeah, I totally agree with the last couple of comments. I love Varda's two most popular films (which are the only others I've seen), Cleo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond, but The Gleaners and I is a rambling, tenuous, and only intermittently interesting mess. She makes all these trash diggers seem like rebellious, beautiful heroes, but really they're nothing but trash diggers. The political message is negligible. I like the stuff about Varda's fleeting life, but it's very poorly integrated into the rest of the film. 5/10.

This particular documentary tells the unique story of an activity and a people that many are most likely oblivious to. And it documents and explores this historical "profession"–– though it is probably better described as a necessity for many. The form follows in Agnes Varda's French New Wave style, introducing the filmmaker as a central character who self-reflects throughout her journey. It excels in the regard of documenting these characters and their lives and their struggles. The overall picture is very simple, and does not go out of its way to entertain the audience. The viewer's interest must already be piqued, but if it is, Varda will grab and maintain the viewer's attention for the entirety of the film.