Les glaneurs et la glaneuse

Varda used a small digital camera for the first time to film this documentary essay about collecting (and reusing). Taking François Millet’s famous painting The Gleaners as her starting point, she follows the tradition of picking up what has been left behind. She comes across people living in precarious circumstances, making ends meet with what is left over, and collecting the remains of our wasteful, throwaway consumerist society in fields, scrapyards, and weekly markets. In addition, Varda makes culture historical connections, addresses the theme of transience, and also sets her sights on how she is aging as well as her filmmaking, which she also grasps as a form of collecting. One of the numerous things she finds in the film are heart-shaped potatoes—they turn up again in Varda’s video installation Patatutopia. (bik)