The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later
First screened in October 2024
Director: Agnès Varda. Documentary about the extraordinary and fond public reception of Varda's The Gleaners and I, the ongoing lives of its subjects, and the reciprocal economy of presents and missives between the filmmaker and her fans. In Brief:
First film's subject: gathering scraps. This one's: producing them, exchanging them as gifts.
VOR:②
Lovely to get this update. Imagine how many documentaries leave you curious about the subjects' and the film's afterlives. As art? Marginal.
A touching record of so many people's emotional attachments to the humbly triumphant film that launched the last two decades of Varda's remarkably long and varied career. Two Years Later barely even asks to be considered a standalone work, but there's plenty of affection and a nobler form of fan service in circling back to the "stars" of The Gleaners and I (many of them given household recognition through regular TV broadcasts of this unexpected landmark) and in sifting through the fond and curious mementos that have arisen from grateful audiences. Heart-shaped potatoes 4ever! Grade:B–
