Cléo de 5 a 7

"Cleo from 5 to 7" tells the story of a young French singer, who fears that she may be seriously ill. What could have been maudlin "movie of the week" soap opera, is transformed by Agnes Varda into a unique movie experience.

The film contrasts Cleo's fear of death with the teeming life of the Paris streets, where street entertainers swallow live frogs and puncture their biceps; and the more normal members of the crowd busy themselves with the usual affairs of business and the heart. A large amount of the film takes place outdoors, with Cleo and the people in her life always walking, running or driving. There is a wonderful scene of Cleo-Distraught over an ominous tarot reading by the fortune teller- descending a circular staircase, her shoe heels clicking out a counterpoint to Michel Legrand's pensive music.

Sometimes just watching the way someone moves is very revealing. Director Varda has a fluid camera style which enlivens every scene. As often happens in European art films the story unfolds in a slow undramatic fashion, but their is so much going on in the image and the text, that you don't mind. Essential viewing.

To me, this is a movie about looking on the bright side of life... from the point of view of someone who isn't. We follow Cleo, a beautiful singer, through a day of her life (from 5:00 to 7:00) as she waits to find out if she has cancer. It's a very simple plot, and I think this simplicity is what allows the film to show Cleo's inner turmoil so well. This movie has strong existential undertones. In the beginning of the film, Cleo believes her fate is just that: fate. She is superstitious to the point of paranoia. Through the course of the film, she discovers that she is in control of her own life, and even in something that seems out of her control -- like cancer -- she has the freedom to decide how she will look at it and whether or not she will let it ruin her life.

First scene (shot in color):Cleo visits the fortune-teller:ignorance,confusion.Last scene:Cleo is a responsible woman now,she's ready to cope with a not-so-rose future:enlightenment. Between the scenes ,one hour and a half (the title is a misnomer).Historically,it's not the first film whose story unfolds in real time (see Robert Wise:the set up).But the concept is here totally mastered. At the beginning of the movie,Cleo is a precious,soft ,selfish young girl.The fortune-teller epitomizes naïvete,a non-scientific attitude.And however,the lady says something important when Cleo draws a skeleton from the tarot pack:"do not panic,the arms and the legs are still covered with flesh.Your own being is about to change deeply." The fortune tells that to comfort Cleo -later she'll tell her husband "cards say "death!",and as for me I've seen cancer"-and the end would prove she was right though. After leaving the fortune-teller,Cleo meets some people ,most of them indifferent,she cannot communicate her anguish to any of them.Everybody' s busy about himself.They listen to her,but they can't hear her. Then she takes her black glasses off!It's a symbol,now she's ready to see the world as it is.She meets Antoine ,he's a soldier about to return to Algeria to fight in a dirty war.Both are afraid,both have found the comfort they needed so!Now Cleo has opened up,she can face the terrible illness."I'm not afraid anymore,she says,I think that I'm happy"

This film is a perfect example of why I love French film. In a word, realism. In many words, the desire to capture life's most important, daring, fanciful, yet haphazard moments with the faith that by doing so you are illustrating a timeless notion. Cleo from 5 to 7 plucks a single string from a singer's life and by pulling at it, illustrates the fabric of the beautiful and unique, but predetermined world that it is woven into. What illustrates this best is the third scene of the movie when the heroine flits about a local shop browsing hats. The camera shows her shopping but also captures many reflections that expose the larger world around her. The window pane showcases soldiers marching by, foreshadowing the war in Algiers. The mirrors take snapshots of Cleo with different head-dresses all be-speaking a future she won't choose. In the background, her maid sits disapprovingly. Small details like these, that are often neglected in other movies, are the backbone of this work of art. Cleo from 5 to 7 is a movie about much more than two hours in the lead character's life. It is about the character's whole life as illustrated by two hours. Like Joyce's Uylsses, it finds parallels between the struggles of a day with the struggles of a life.

It's not like I simply love everything that is French. Au contraire! But there is no denying it that French movies from the old days often have something very special about them. Artistic, quiet, beautiful, engaging and for from boring, even though not an awful lot is always happening in it, as is also the case with this movie.

It actually is its simplicity that makes this movie. Everything is very clear about this movie; we know who the main characters is and what she is going through. It's a movie without little complications to its story and instead decides to simply follow its main character and a couple of hours of her life.

Another beautiful thing about this movie is that it's actually about a pretty heavy and serious subject. This movie could had so easily turned into something dramatic and sentimental but it instead feels like a very positive movie. It's a nice spin to the genre and it takes a real pleasant approach, that also helps to make this movie a very engaging one.

This is at least what I got from this movie. As often is the case with these sort of movies, you might get something totally different out of it. It's also obviously being filled with metaphors and symbolism, without this ever becoming too distracting by the way. But because of this storytelling approach, you might interpret things different as I did, so it really still above all things is something you have to experience for yourself.

It's a beautifully shot movie with some great camera-work at times. The movie is deliberately being kept small and simplistic, with both its story and visuals, which all was something director Agnès Varda obviously understood- and handled very well. It's a subtly done film, that perhaps requires multiple viewing to fully get everything out of it.

Nicely done genre film with a great approach to it.

8/10

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