Master Rank #630

The Gleaners and I

2000

GCML Total7.6840% Greatness · 40% Engagement · 20% Ease

Directed by Agnès Varda

CastAgnès Varda

FranceFrenchDocumentary / Foreign82 minNot Rated
Sight & SoundDocumentary FeatureDeliberate pace
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List

Spoiler-free premise

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip.

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Agnès Varda meets people who gather discarded crops, market leftovers, and abandoned objects across France. Her small digital camera also turns toward her own aging hands, accidental images, and found heart-shaped potatoes, linking material salvage with the filmmaker’s personal act of collecting.

Why it belongs

Agnès Varda transforms gleaning into an essay on waste, survival, art, aging, and her own digital hand, curious without appropriating the people she meets.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

With her lightweight digital camera, Varda uses gleaning for both social inquiry and self-portrait, moving among discarded food, found objects, aging hands, legal definitions, and playful images gathered by the filmmaker herself.

Major award wins

No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.

Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20

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