"Grain Gleaner" is a masterpiece of French 19th-century painter Jean-Francois Millet. It takes the summer harvest as the main image of three peasant women bending over to pick up the wheat ears, and uses this as a source of inspiration to "gather up" this kind of time-honored work. The historical French tradition is transformed into an in-depth study of the massive waste in modern society.
It depicts the image of scavengers in the contemporary era of France, and the scavengers tell their views on the scavengers in front of Varda's camera. Feeling the various waste phenomena in the consumer society, Varda said, "This is a film about waste." The existence of scavengers reduces waste.
In Varda's view , various scavengers can be roughly divided into three categories: "Some people pick up waste because they are forced by life, some people pick up waste because they are artists, and some people pick up waste because they like to pick up waste."
From December 1998 to April 1999, Agnès Varda, who was over seventy years old, took Digital Video to "wander around" French cities and villages, and filmed some images of French scavengers in this era. : Tramps and people living in poverty pick up all kinds of necessities for their livelihoods. Artists look for raw materials to create art works from the waste copper and iron piles. The motivation of those who like to scavengers is out of the virtue of opposing waste. In addition to scavenging, the film also has a secondary line that is separated from the main line, showing some people and things that seem to have nothing to do with scavenging but are actually closely related, such as interviewing a vineyard owner who also works as a psychologist, and The descendants of Marais, one of the pioneers of the invention of film, talked about the problem of film.
This documentary was inspired by the 19th century French painter Jean-Francois Millet's famous painting "The Gleaner", which depicts the image of scavengers in the contemporary era in France. According to Varda, various scavengers are roughly divided into three categories: "Some people scavengers because they are forced by life, some scavengers because they are artists, and some people scavengers because they like scavengers." The full title is "The Scavengers and Female Scavengers", in which the "Female Scavengers" refers to Varda himself. Everyone in the film is picking up waste. Varda herself is also picking up waste. She is picking up the forgotten memories. The artistic achievement of the film is not only reflected in Varda’s creation of an experimental digital documentary with a first-person narrative, but also in the film’s mastery of the "self-only" and "subjective" as well as the "self" and being of the film author. The subtle boundaries between the "others" in the social reality of the filming. This film was shot with DV and then expanded into 35mm motion picture film for distribution. It has won 30 awards in 30 months.
