Cleo dalle 5 alle 7

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.

A film about living life in the shadow of death, about how viewing the world without sunglasses lets in the light, and shows us the truth. This beautful movie is made with surging energy and a lightness of touch by Agnes Varda, the immortal poet of French cinema. It is superbly constructed while feeling as if it were being made up as it goes along. The camera captures a Paris that in some ways has disappeared but in others is still with us and which I hope will remain forever.

Corinne Marchand is forever Cleo, a singer waiting for the result of a recent medical test. When she sings her "Sans Toi", your eyes will fill with tears; when she vamps her way down the steps in Montsouris Park, you'll smile your broadest smile. Around her, life teems -- friends, colleagues, strangers and their children, animals, trees, overheard conversations, momentary remarks -- all observed with a keen eye and endless compassion by Varda and her team.

Ten stars for this? No. A thousand. It's beyond rating. For me, this sits among the highest achievements of cinema. CLEO will live forever.

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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I loved this film. I wasn't expecting to, but from the very beginning you are drawn into Cleo's world. You understand a woman whom nobody understands, something that is extremely hard to do but Agnes Varda carries it off beautifully. Her coworkers don't care for her, her lover isn't really in-tune with her life, and her best friend likes her, but is busy with her own life. It isn't until she meets the someone new, someone who like herself is about to face a real danger, that she not only faces her problem, but can in a sense conquer it. It's not an easy film to explain, but it's beautifully done and a true winner. I heard that they want to remake it with Madonna. It would be nice for it to be in English, but a remake isn't necessary. They certainly got it right the first time.

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.