Comparison Of Film: The Gleaners And I

The Gleaners and I, is a 21st century documentary Agnes Varda shaped to depict the interactions she has with a class of people called, gleaners. Gleaners are a specific class of individuals who not only gather rural agricultural surplus but also urban supermarket trash. They salvage through acres of agriculture, performing backbreaking work, to provide for their needs without spending any currency. Gleaners believe in the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Some say Varda, throughout her entire film and the film itself, uses a style of filmmaking that is often interpreted as a statement that great things like art can still be created through scraps, yet modern economies encourage people to only use the finest product. (Wikipedia)

Film historians refer to Agnes' creations as the root of the French New Wave film movement due to unfamiliar methods she introduced in the 1950s. Her applications of filming non-professional actors in the setting where the story takes place was unprecedented in French cinema. As the director, editor, producer and writer of The Gleaners and I, Varda has one specific goal: to reveal an underworld of misfits with economic disadvantage in the presence of the fortunate. Since Varda's style of using characters that are outcasts in society, this film has been a perfect example of her life's work. Varda is very articulate in her films because each element of her film carries symbolism in its very essence while contributing to the overall purpose of the film. She also introduces the protagonists in the French countryside to be a symbol in her film. The director's use of characters in the film gave the documentary a touch most documentaries have been missing: relatable characters; through their eyes, the documentary became an