Gleaning the Beauty
—The Tendency of “to record, reveal, or preserve” in The Gleaners and I
From Michael Renov’s perspective, the four fundamental tendencies, which he proposes in “Towards a Poetics of Documentary”, definitely represent “the nascent poetics of the documentary.” The first fundamental tendency is “to record, reveal, or preserve”, which reflects thoroughly in Agnes Varda’s documentary The Gleaners and I, where Varda tries to record, reveal and preserve the true beauty in the hidden and abandoned corner in our world.
Varda records several gleaners in Paris, who are different from the mainstream, including the people who glean the potatoes abandoned for not meeting the standards, poor people who pick food in the garbage that thrown away by supermarket in the city, the young chief who is a born picker, the artists gleaning for their artworks, an unemployed teaching assistant picking food from trash bin in the morning but teaching illiterate people French in the evening… Varda’s recording draws our attention to these ordinary people to reconsider the value of the waste and the morality in this society of excessive consumption.
Varda utilizes her lens to reveal the beauty of the spirit and dignity of gleaners and pickers and express her disappointment and concern towards the culture of excessive consumption in the society. From the scene of people gleaning the abandon potatoes, Varda reveals that those potatoes perceived as trash in the normal standard still contain beauty, since they can play a part in preventing the poor people from starving. Besides, some malformed potatoes like the heart-shaped potatoes have miraculous beauty in Varda’s eyes. The potato gleaners are depicted as dignified and wise people who discover the function and beauty of those abandoned potatoes and play their roles in preventing the waste and helping the poor people. Apart from that, Varda reveals homeless people, another group of gleaners. Those poor people who would rather find food in the garbage than beg food without efforts should be respected for their dignity. Furthermore, the nice and thrifty chief Edouard Loubet reveals the admirable character of thrift, which is gradually forgotten by people nowadays. What’s more, those artists who glean for their materials of their artworks perceive gleaning and picking as a trip for fun and exploration for beauty. Finally, the employed teaching assistant who gleans food in the morning but dress up to teach illiterate people French reveals a precious character of a person: one can only gain dignity by himself.
We can perceive Varda’s purpose, from her moving and vivid lens, that tries to arouse the concern about the social value in the culture of excessive consumption and preserve the precious beauty that is overlooked by the public. She tries to preserve this beauty of spiritual world by filming the heart-shaped potatoes that represent the imagination and childishness in this society of consumption. Besides, she also tries to preserve the dignity and conscience of the gleaners by recording their life and thoughts.
For the other functions, “to persuade or promote,” “to analyze or interrogate,” and “to express,” they more or less appear in this film and they play supportive roles for the primary tendency rather than contradict against it. For example, the “to express” can be seen from Varda’s recording of those gleaners. An admiration to their preservation of beauty and their dignity has been clearly expressed. Along with the effects of other functions, they make the primary tendency clearer and more distinct and this documentary is integrated that there isn’t a discernable tendency that goes against it. This film also successfully calls attention to its aim. Through the unique perspective, the film evokes audience to appreciate the beauty of recycling and respect the dignity of the gleaners, and perhaps waste less on their next meal, which is exactly the aim of this documentary.
In conclusion, by wisely utilizing the tendency of “record, reveal and preserve,” Varda incisively and vividly expresses her frustration towards the fact that the value of the dignity and conscience of gleaners who make efforts to discover beauty and prevent wasting is ignored by the public. As a woman who is gleaning in the film, Varda tries to appeal the audience to realize the importance of gleaning and picking the true beauty in the ordinary.