Movie Description Agnes Varda's signature strategy of mixing documentary and fiction comes to fruition in this intimate and fluid portrait of two hours in the life of pop singer Cleo Victoire (Corrine Marchand) as she restlessly awaits the results of a cancer test. With a distinctly feminist take on the French New Wave films of the early 1960s, Varda's film examines Cleo's banal yet extraordinary afternoon as she traverses Paris, bouncing back and forth between various men, intercepting and avoiding friends, enemies, superstitions, chance, and eventually love. The camera follows at breakneck speed as Cleo's existential ennui pulls her through the city (beautifully captured by Jean Rabier's sweeping cinematography). Lively characters populate Cleo's journey, ranging from a tough female cabdriver, Cleo's mothering assistant, her blasé boyfriend, and finally a talkative and intriguing stranger, a young soldier (Antoine Bourseiller) spending his last hours in Paris before shipping off to war. As Cleo's perspectives are completely rearranged by the specter of possible illness, Varda describes a world of life, possibilities, and love.
| Credits | | Producer: | Georges De Beauregard | | Cast: | Dorothee Blank, Jose-Luis De Villalonga |
| Details | | Edition: | Criterion Collection |
Notes DVD Features: Region 1 Encoding Keep Case Widescreen Digital Transfer Restored Color Opening Sequence, U.S. Theatrical Release: February, 1962.
Director Agnes Varda had previously directed one feature, LA POINTE COURTE, which pre-dated the French New Wave. It was CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, however, that catapulted her to international success on the heels of established New Wave success such as BREATHLESS and HIROSHIMA, MON AMOR.
Agnes Varda represented an independent voice within the French New Wave not only by being the only woman, but also because she was not a part of the Cahiers du Cinema critic circle.
The two-hour time span of the title is actually condensed to 90 minutes, despite appearing to take place in real time. This is one of many ways in which the film blurs notions of documentary and narrative filmmaking.
Editorial Reviews "...Fresh and vividly shot..." Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (02/01/2001)
"[A] lustrous fiction in a documentary setting told in real time..." Sight and Sound - Tim Lucas (04/01/2008)
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