Summer Brief

The gleaners and I

full timthumb

The gleaners and I is a film by Agnes Varda, one of the few female directors of the French New Wave. It is a documentary based film, as the title says, on gleaning – as to “gather (Grain o the like) after the reapers or regular gatherers” (Dictionary. com). It is also a film about Agnes herself; in fact this film is a self-portrait of herself and the part of the French community (homeless, poor) that is often forgotten. The definition of gleaning, for this film, is updated to reflect modern society, where gleaning can be picking rubbish and leftovers from bins, streets and markets. It is a painful view on todays unfair and consumerist society.

This film touches on political and social issues like poverty, sustainability, waste, reusability and the limits of capitalism. Problems that are filmed are not necessarily there to make a comment on the society that the filmmaker is living in, but to open a window to that society, creating a sense of disgust and awareness in the spectators, whether that sensation is voluntary or not. Varda has opened the eye of the common ignorant person, and not with prejudice but with her witty curiosity, with the editing, with the wonderful people she interviews and with her nearly constant presence on the film. Varda observes and gets involved in the people’s life; she is not trying to judge or jump to conclusions on the way they live their lives or the way the society treats them.

This film can be considered a road documentary set in France. Varda is not following a chronological order with her narrative, but instead has edited the film by connecting shots by theme or association; a technique that can be associated with the deep focusing editing technique. By doing this, the meaning that is created within the images can be freely interpreted from the spectator. Her voice and the shots of her herself are used as a glue throughout the film, as Homay King says on his essay: Matter, Time, and the Digital: Varda ‘ s The Gleaners and I “Varda often uses a visual Rhyme, metonymic link, or verbal pun as her means of connecting one segment to the next (page 9). The rhythm is quite slow, because of this type of editing, the pace is steady and this keeps the audience’s attention, her voice over and the cuts helps too.

Varda in one her interviews calls herself a gleaner of images, which relates to the way she has constructed the film; gleaning her story together. For example, one of her interviews is with a wine maker/psychotherapist, who turns out to be the descendant of Etienne-Jules Marey. This kind of coincidence helps drive the structure of the film, with many of her meetings with people happening either by chance, or by her following people around and asking questions.

Varda is mostly present throughout the film, not just as director/narrator but also as a character. This can be seen with the close up of her hands –with her reflections about death and getting old, also with the close ups of her (white) hair, and with her playing with the effect of the new camera. A symbolic moment of the film, a moment that signifies that the documentary is not only about gleaning but is about Varda too at the beginning. This is shown when she was filmed trying to pose as Breton’s famous gleaner, but, contrary to Breton’s painting, she drops the crops and grabs her portable camera; a symbol of the modern world, the advance of technology and of freedom for her as a filmmaker. The camera is her apron, she is a gleaner, but a gleaner of images and stories which reflects the world through the character of Varda.

The portable camera is essential for this film, as it creates a more personal approach to the film itself, such as the unsteadiness of her hand, the extreme close ups on her and on the potatoes, the freedom of being able to carry around the camera and being able to record unexpected events. She is playful on the shots but always aware of the mise-en scene of the shots itself, in her witty and playful way she is always aware of her artist mind, and the mise-en scene is always perfect.

The Gleaners and I cannot be defined in just one of the Nichols’s Documentary modes; in fact it contained three of them: participatory, observational and performative; Depending on which part of the film has been analysed the different modes can be found:

Participatory and performative modes are used on her conversations with the protagonists of the documentary. Also, these modes are used in her interviews with the law officers throughout the film, the shots of herself and her voice overs.

Observational mode is used when she uses her handled camera at the market, observing the pickers after the market is finished, when she films the rubbish on the street and the people trying to get as much as they can out of it.

Various composers were used for the soundtrack, with quite a diverse selection used through the film. The music at times is sometimes strange -which helps to emphasise the oddness of the situation. For some of the film, she has chosen rap music, (for example, the market shot). The rap music chosen is unapologetic; unafraid to speak out loud about racism, poverty, human conditions, injustices and everything that has a relation with abuse. This works well on her film because this documentary is about people, their lives and waste.

In conclusion, this documentary highlights how poverty has not really disappeared, but instead has changed form. Gleaning has adapted, making a come back in today’s society. The film highlights this issue for an audience that may not be aware of the current situation, using an unconventional but engaging story to inform the viewer. As with any documentary, there is a point of view, and this comes from chiefly from Varda. With this, it is important to remember that “Documentary is not a reproduction of reality, it is a representation of the world we already occupy” (Nichols, 2010 p.13). Varda paints an intriguing representation of the world, that asks more questions than it answers.

Bibliography:

HAYWARD, S. (2000) Cinema Studies, the Key Concepts, 2^nd Ed. London: Routledge.

BORDWELL, D. and THOMPSON, K. (2015) The geeting of rhythm: Room at the bottom [online] Available from: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2015/02/01/the-getting-of-rhythm-room-at-the-bottom/ [Accessed on September 2015]

CALLENBACH, E. (2002) The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Gleneuse) J-Stor [online] Film quaterly Vol. 56, No.2, pp 46-49. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2002.56.2.46?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=agnes&searchText=varda&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dagnes%2Bvarda%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone [Accessed September 2015]

KING, H. (2007) Matter, Time, and the Digital: Varda’s The Gleaners and I [online] Available from: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=hart_pubs [Accessed on September 2015]

MARCHENKOVA, V. () Gleaners and I – political filmmaking of Agnes Varda [online] Available from: http://www.academia.edu/13653811/Gleaners_and_I_-_political_filmmaking_of_Agnes_Varda [Accessed on September 2015]

NICHOLS, B. (2010) Introduction to Documentary. 2^nd Ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

QUART, B. and VARDA, A. (1986/87) Agnes Varda: a Conversation. J-Stor [online] Film Quaterly Vol. 40, No. 2, pp 3-10. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1212347?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=agnes&searchText=varda&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dagnes%2Bvarda%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents [Accessed September 2015]

RABIGER, M. (2015) Directing the Documentary, 6^th Ed. Burlington: Focal Press.

VAUGHAN, D. (1999) For Documentary, Twelve essays. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

WARD, P. (2005) Documentary, the Margins of Reality. London: Wallflowers press.

Other Sources:

http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/montage/montage-1.html

https://www.fandor.com/films/the_gleaners_and_i

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/10-things-gleaned-from-agnes-vardas-the-gleaners-and-i

http://news.nationalpost.com/life/food-drink/naomi-duguid-on-exploring-the-edges-with-agnes-vardas-the-gleaners-and-i

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-gleaners-and-i-2001

http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/gleaners/