Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)
Directed by Agnès Varda

Film Review

This characteristically low-key documentary, from one of the last surviving directors of the French New Wave of the 1960s, is a thought provoking and instructive work.  It goes way beyond explaining the term “glaneur” and illustrating its various guises in our modern world.   It also shows that this is fundamentally a natural human activity, one which some, less fortunate, individuals depend upon to survive.  Others do it for pleasure, to make contact with nature or for charitable reasons.  Others do it from a moralistic standpoint, appalled by the obscene waste generated by our consumer society.

The film also provides a portrait of its director, Varda, who is revealed to be something of a glaneur, picking up tack from second-hand shops and from her foreign trips and also, more importantly, in her own film-making.  Varda does occasionally get a little carried away (for example the obsession with her wrinkled hand and her silly attempts to capture lorries in her hand whilst driving down a motorway).  These introspective diversions disrupt the natural thrust of the film to some extent.

As she freely admits, Varda was exceptionally lucky when she came to make the film, although some of what she describes a luck may be down to her natural perspicacity and ability to find interesting things to film.  She was certainly fortunate to come across some truly remarkable people during filming who not only illustrated the point she was making but also went much further than she could have imagined.  Some of these encounters are brilliantly captured by Varda and add a poignant touch of humanity, reinforcing Varda's thesis that the "glaneurs" in today's world offer an important role-model which the rest of society should be encouraged to emulate.  Perhaps scrounging in refuse sacks is going a bit far, but certainly we should show a bit more thought over what we discard and how we use the world's resources.

Film Synopsis

Acclaimed filmmaker Agnès Varda embarks on a new odyssey, inspired by the word 'glaneur' which offers up a multitude of meanings.  Originally, the word referred to those who went around collecting what was left after the main harvest, the fruit and vegetables that would otherwise have been left to rot in the ground or been eaten by animals.  It is a concept that runs contrary to the ethos of the consumer society, but it  chimes perfectly with the emerging trend towards a more environmentally friendly way of life, making the best use of what we find instead of demanding that everything should be manufactured and prepared for us.

To see how widely the practice of 'glanage' is catching on in modern day France, Varda makes a tour of her home country, and in doing so she constructs a patchwork-quilt kind of film that is in its way an example of gleaning.  For Édouard Loubet, a head-chef in the Lubéron, gleaning in its original sense (the collection of produce after the harvest) is something of a family tradition - and interestingly it is still permitted by French law.  Although he doesn't need to, François L. fishes everything he needs from dustbins, and has done so for the past ten years.  Alain F., a man who teaches people how to read for nothing, gleans what he needs from the leftovers in the marketplace.  Gleaning may seem like an eccentric indulgence today, when there is no need for us to scavenge for what we need, but could this be the future for us all...?