The Gleaners and I

2000 1h 22m FR

🙌

7.7

BANGER

★7.7TMDB · 231

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Agnès Varda
Self
Bodan Litnanski
Self
François Wertheimer
Self

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Agnès Varda
Writers: Agnès Varda
Languages: French
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

82 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Agnès Varda, shot by Didier Doussin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Isabelle Olivier. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Agnès Varda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Agnès Varda and Bodan Litnanski and François Wertheimer carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0247380 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Agnès Varda directs. Didier Doussin behind the camera. Isabelle Olivier scores. Agnès Varda cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in France. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Agnès Varda, shot by Didier Doussin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Isabelle Olivier. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Agnès Varda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Agnès Varda and Bodan Litnanski and François Wertheimer carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt0247380 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "france", "countryside", "collecting", "handheld camera".

The technical file

Cinematography: Didier Doussin
Original score: Isabelle Olivier
Editing: Agnès Varda
Runtime: 82 min · 1h 22m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Gleaners and I (2000)

Awards

European Film Award for Best Documentary

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Agnès Varda

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

badelf2022-06-10
★ 9/10
One doesn't normally use the word "fun" and documentary in the same sentence, but Varga has such a unique personality and style that her films are actually fun. The Gleaners and I may be the most fun and yet, Varga delivers the political message with Vaseline. At the same time, we get an education on found art.
tmdb280390232022-08-27
★ 6/10
The Gleaners and I is a documentary about gleaning as both a physical and metaphysical activity. Director Agnès Varda is herself a meta-gleaner; she’s a gleaner of gleaners the same way that Jesus was a fisher of men. The film is a confluence of the practical and the artistic. Many of the people in the movie glean to eat (their children sing a revealing ditty: “Monday, potatoes/Tuesday, potatoes/Wednesday, potatoes again/Thursday, potatoes/Friday, potatoes/Saturday, potatoes again/Sunday, potatoes au gratin”). For others is a chosen lifestyle, or a hipster hobby. And for Varda, it is an aesthetic endeavor; “I'm not poor, I have enough to eat,” she said in an interview, pointing to “another kind of gleaning, which is artistic gleaning. You pick ideas, you pick images, you pick emotions from other people, and then you make it into a film.” Thus, while most of the gleaners in the film collect objects they can use, Varda chooses a useless object – a handless clock – and repurposes it as an ornamental piece. The Gleaners and I is almost 100% wheat except for the chaff of self-indulgence. The film gains a lot of momentum when Varda simply observes, and one of its greatest pleasures is how the filmmaker makes room for spontaneous diversions, becoming sidetracked in the pursuit of beautiful things and interesting people. This momentum is lost when Varda points the camera at herself, a mistake that is obvious to everyone but her; in fact, in a follow-up released two years after the original film, one of her interviewees tells her, after watching the documentary, that the scenes she devotes to herself are “unnecessary”. That said, Varda does deserve a lot of credit for her ability to find beauty in the most unexpected places, both in the countryside and in the city, filming with one hand, and gleaning with the other.