Reviews of The Gleaners & I
Displaying all 2 reviews
Jerry Johnson
22Feb10
I don’t get anything out of the subject of crop gleaning (I grew up on a ranch, so all the wonder at scraps left over from the harvest seems dumb to me), but none of that matters. It’s an enchanting travelogue and character study. The way Varda inserts herself into the film would be terrible by any other filmmaker, but it’s Varda, one of the greatest personalities in cinema, and so it works. The cross-eyed dude who eats what he finds as soon as he picks it up and then teaches African immigrants French at night is one of the great hero characters of cinema- he’s the Jean Gabin of French documentary.
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
Bobby Myers
28Oct09
A fantastic documentary. It was a pleasure to meet most of the gleaners Varda came across, a few of whom seemed like truly great people – namely the chef and the French teacher working for free and living in a shelter while scavenging for his health-conscious dinners. Varda just seems like an absolutely wonderful little old lady who is struggling to come to terms with the passage of time, but holds a great appreciation for art and humanity. She is adorable, even when she is accidentally filming her dancing lens cap.
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.