Welcome back to my French New Wave series after the long holiday weekend. Cleo From 5 To 7 was another film I’d chosen to write about for an ASU course assignment. Here’s what I wrote back in the day!
While Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Breathless were groundbreaking visually and shook up traditional narrative structure, Cleo From 5 To 7 is most notable as the singular masterwork of New Wave’s sole female director, Agnes Varda. Her path was different from most of her male contemporaries. They either started out as film critics or worked their way up through the ranks to become masters of their own destiny. Varda’s background was in still photography which was her launching pad that would eventually lead to a fruitful film career.
During the 1950s Varda had only one feature and four films to her credit. By the time she began to make Cleo From 5 To 7 in 1961 —she was gaining momentum which would place her in the top ranks of New Wave directors. Aside from Varda being the lone female director in the New Wave pantheon, the other very unique aspect of Cleo From 5 To 7 was the two hour time frame of the title. Although the film actually runs for 90 minutes, (as it turns out), all of it was filmed in real time.
Varda’s story is of a young, pretty, up-and-coming pop singer (Cleo) who anxiously awaits news as to whether or not she has been diagnosed with cancer. Cleo does an even better job than Breathless in making use of real Paris locations as the bustling, contemporary setting for this anxious tale that could well determine life or death for Cleo. Varda’s story is highly personal and subjective as much of New Wave tends to be. However, while the intimacy of Hiroshima, Mon Amour is heavy with the burdensome, painful memories of a woman’s tragic past, Cleo From 5 To 7 is entirely…and almost desperately locked into another young woman’s urgent and potentially tragic present.
In spite of the weighty issue Cleo faces, the 90 minutes of her early evening are absorbing and packed with activity which takes our protagonist and her audience on a fascinating, indulgent tour of real Paris neighborhoods as she runs errands to kill time before her doctor’s appointment. Under Varda’s skillful direction Cleo runs the gamut of emotions while anticipating her fate. One of her primary emotions is despair, after a disturbing tarot reading hinting at death (and curiously is the only sequence in color) afterwards she breaks into tears over coffee with her maid at a cafe.
Then her mood becomes more buoyant with the frivolity of a hat shopping expedition, onto the “everything is fine” act when her casual lover drops by for a bit. After this Cleo has a temper tantrum when her songwriters stop over a piano session and things don’t automatically go her way. Varda also has a gift for capturing what could be just ordinary events and makes them engaging. A charming example of this occurs as the viewer can see cute kittens wrestling in the background during Cleo’s rehearsal session.
This is where I leave off for now. Look forward to the conclusion of Cleo From 5 To 7 next week!
