I love this film so much. In addition to all the insights from previous comments, I'd like to add that there are no moral judgements made on Varda's part about not only the people she meets who are gleaners, but also those were are on the opposing side. The harshest words she says about them is that "they don't want to be nice".
I think if I met most of the people in this documentary on the street, I would simply pass them by (without knowing or wanting to know anything about them), but Varda has such a knack in finding their humanity, their beauty, that I am humbled by her curiosity and love of her fellow human beings. In the accompanying film on the DVD - made two years after the film, a woman on the street points out that after watching this film you want to become a better human being. What else is there to say after that? It is also important to note that it is a film that resonates, for me anyway, so that the desire to be a better human being is not a fleeting desire felt only after watching the film, it does stay with you.
I think if I met most of the people in this documentary on the street, I would simply pass them by (without knowing or wanting to know anything about them), but Varda has such a knack in finding their humanity, their beauty, that I am humbled by her curiosity and love of her fellow human beings. In the accompanying film on the DVD - made two years after the film, a woman on the street points out that after watching this film you want to become a better human being. What else is there to say after that? It is also important to note that it is a film that resonates, for me anyway, so that the desire to be a better human being is not a fleeting desire felt only after watching the film, it does stay with you.