Rating: NNNNN
THE GLEANERS AND I (Agnès Varda, 2000) does away with the hyper-objectivity that stiffens so many documentaries. Varda, now 73, allows her personality to colour every frame as she drives through France filming gleaners — people who comb through harvested fields and garbage cans looking for leftovers. Some are pop artists, others are destitute and a few do it on environmental principle. Varda approaches each of them like a new friend whose story she wants to learn. She doesn’t patronize or pontificate (although the farmers who forbid gleaning are treated with righteous petulance). Connections between the stories are often whimsical. Varda shows us what it’s like to drive long distances beside big trucks and then films her spotted hand encircling them like a childhood game. The film is a road movie, art class, cooking show, rap music video and meditation on aging as much as it is a condemnation of society’s wastefulness. Varda has enjoyed a long, celebrated career, but it’s obvious she prefers foraging for fallen apples with her new friends to drinking champagne with the noblesse. Cheeky and inspiring. NNNN (June 28 and 30, Cinematheque)
