many hands make light work

I must admit, after the glowing review of Agnes Varda’s La Glaneurs et al Glaneuse in class last Wednesday, I was at first a little surprised at the style of the film.  From the first frames, I had trouble seeing the film as anything but a documentary.  Although the film certainly appeared to have an artistic bent, the interviews, which at times seemed premeditated, overshadowed the singular voice, definitive of the video essay genre.  However, the more I watched I realized that by creating a metaphor between herself and the gleaners, of various kinds, Varda was effectively creating a polymorphous, singular voice.  The scenes in which she films her hands, tools of gathering, capture a self-exploration that is both poignant and appropriate to the overall theme of the piece.  I am particularly impressed by Varda’s ability to gather multiple voices into a cohesive narrative after watching Sans Soliel, in which Chris Marker, although having made a very good film, failed to evoke the video essay by using a single voice.