Les glaneurs dans L'Etats Unis???

Last semester, I watched a documentary in my French film class.  It was called Les glaneurs et la glanuese (The gleaners and I), by Angès Varda.  After watching the documentary, talking about it in class, and then going through the holiday season, I got to thinking about something.  Would gleaning in the US be bad and why?  And why is it almost normal to glean in France (and other places) but not in the US?

Gleaning is the act of gathering leftover crops after the harvest.  It can also expand to a bit more to the gathering items.  It is usually associated with an over-consumption and a large waste of food or just items that can be used by others.

In the movie, Angès (pictured above) traveled around France to show different types of gleaning with a hand-held camera.  Some were gleaning potatoes after the harvest, where Angès found heart-shaped potatoes (pictured right).  She talked to many of those who were gleaning in the fields and one man who was homeless and gleaned potatoes so he could have something to eat.  In France, it is legal for those to glean on a crop field only after the harvest has passed.

Another man gleaned old dolls around France and created pillars outside his home to represent the waste of items in the country.  There was an episode within the documentary where a man gleaned appliances, had a friend fix them up, and possibly sell them or keep them for later.  These were two instances where people were gleaning something other than food but for a special purpose.  One man gleaned food after the local market had gone through and then spent the night teaching the men in his apartment building.  He gleaned to eat, and taught the other men for no price, just because he wanted them to get an education.

Within the movie, Angès was also very into paintings and other art concerning.  She begins the movie talking about a piece of art and finds others through out.  One she finds with her sister as a surprise while they were walking through a thrift store.  She said in the film that it was luck and the painting was calling to her.  She just had to have it and bought it on the spot.  The main painting by Jean-Francois Millet is what the movie is inspired by.  The painting (pictured left) shows three women gleaning wheat in a field.  Many of the other paintings in the movie show large groups gleaning in the same field, but one she liked was one of a lone woman, with a large bushel of wheat on her shoulder.

Now, after that, driving around with my mother, I realized something.  Why is it, that if we were to see someone going through the leftover bins from a farmer's market, we'd be disgusted or yell at them to get a job (I've seen this happen)?  Why is it that we considered gleaning to be so bad?  It's taking food that is somewhat undesirable, and feeding someone who does not have the money to get the food themselves somewhere else.  Why is that so bad?  Why is it that in this country we associate someone trying their hardest to find food to feed themselves, and even going into the trash to do so, is seen as bad and disgusting and our immediate reaction is to say that them having a job will help them?  I just can't understand it, and I once use to think like that.

Is it illegal in the US?  From what I've found it's not illegal in most states, but from the Good Samaritan Act, places that make a surplus of food are to bring it to shelter and centers for those who live there.  Sadly, I don't feel this happens all to often in our country.  Maybe we should fight for it to start up again.  That way we can be part of our country never being hungry.  I know that's something I want.

I found that two years later she came out with a second movie 'Deux ans après' (Two years later).  The cover is two the potatoes Angès had gleaned in the field, sprouting out and wrinkly.  After writing this, I think I'll go ahead and watch this second documentary, see what it's all about and what Angès talks about here.  Maybe things have changed since the first film, and gleaning is looked at differently.  Those vineyards that deliberately ruined the unwanted crops to stop gleaners stopped, and allowed gleaners to come on and get some food.  I'll just have to wait and see when I watch Deux ans après.

Let me know how you feel about gleaning.  Should it be viewed differently in the US?  Should we encourage it?  Should we stop looking at activities like this as being a bad thing?  I want to know how you all feel.

À bientôt!

La Famille Belier

The other day in my French film class we watched the movie 'La Famille Belier' or 'The Belier Family' in English.  I really liked the film and it's story.  In case you've never seen the movie, here's a basic plot:

A young girl, Paula Belier, lives in the French countryside with her parents and brother.  She lives a normal life, besides the fact that her whole family is deaf and they run a cattle ranch and sell cheese at the local market.  One day at school while in chorale, her professor discovers that she has a gift for singing.  She starts her journey of sneaking around to her professor's house and practicing for her audition into a prestigous singing school in Paris.  At the end, she struggles to fit both her dreams and her parents dreams into her life.

However, from an article another classmate found, it's not that great of a hit in the deaf community.  The actors who play Paula's father, mother, and brother are not deaf.  The article also goes to say that the story line of the film was too cliche and overused.  I understand these points and agree with them a point.

Would the movie have been better with actors and actresses who were, in fact, deaf?  Maybe, but we can't say that unless someone goes and remakes the whole movie again with deaf actors and actresses.  The article also mentions that the sign language is not 100% accurate and at some points it just seems like the actors and actresses were just waving their hands about.  In this sense, yes it would have been better to have actors and actresses who were deaf and spoke (honestly is this the best verb to use I need to know) French Sign Language.

The cliche aspect from the article, though I can see where it comes from, I didn't agree with fully.  It is overused to have a child/other member of a mainly deaf family have a voice of great beauty and want to go out and make a life with that voice.  That's overused in not just France but all over.  However, it was one of the first movies I had seen with this trope.  I liked the film and the plot and the story.  However, if I saw too many films with this same premise before, I would agree with the statement in the article more.  It's only because this is (from my memory at the moment) one of the first movies with a deaf family.  (I literally can't think of any other movies I have ever seen with deaf characters but I know I've had to at least seen one of them???)

Paula and Gabriel practiced their duet
by dancing together and singing at the
same time.

With all this said, I want to talk about all the moments in the film that I liked.  One big one, was the romantic part of Paula and Gabriel was not even really part of the movie until the ending.  At first it was just a crush on him by her.  Only at the end of the film, after the chorale concert, where Paula and Gabriel have their duet of the Michel Sardou song 'Je vais t'aimer'.  Then, the relationship is no longer touched that often.  It made a nice transition from other movies where the romance aspect is one of the larger themes and story lines throughout the whole movie.

Secondly, I liked the scene after the chorale concert when Paula was sitting outside, and her father came over to see her.  They chatted (signed?) about how she likes to sing, then her father placed his hand just under her neck.  Then, Paula began to sing.  It was the moment when her father, Rudolph, finally realized that this was a gift that Paula had, and that she would do great in that singing school in Paris.  Afterwards he wakes the whole family early in the morning and packed them into the car, driving Paula all the way to Paris to audtion.  He knew in his heart that this was a good opportunity for his daughter, and eventually the mother realized this too.

During the chorale concert was another moment I liked.  It was during the duet of Paula and Gabriel.  The sound of the entire movie leaves.  You go into the mind of the parents and brother of Paula.  Watching this all unfold around you, but not hearing a single thing.  I thought that it was a very wonderful scene and a great way to see into the life of those who cannot hear.

In this scene Paula stares up at her,
family; this is right before she begins
to sign the lyrics to the song.

The last scene that I just loved was the audition into the Paris singing school for Paula.  The song she chose was 'Je vole' also by Michel Sardou.  The song is about telling one's parents that they are leaving [the nest] and they still love them.  That they are no longer a small child, but they will always be their baby.  Then, a verse into the song, Paula begins to sign all the words she sings, so her family (who was sitting in the back of the room) can understand what she's saying.  I felt very emotional during this scene because it was a large climax turning point in the film.  It was the whole Belier family coming to the understanding that they're lives would be different, that Paula was going to live a dream that she held in her heart, and that everything was going to be okay.


La famille Belier was a great coming-of-age, comedy, and drama movie for all ages to enjoy.  There may be parts of the film that are cliche, and the vitality of the deaf parents and brother may not be the best, but the movie still tells a great story and I feel that this movie deserves all the good praise it has gotten.

À bientôt!

Photo creds: film poster, what?, paula1, paula2,