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Summary: Gay and Grave
Review: The film that put New Wave director Agnes Varda on the map, CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 looks spiffy here, as expected from a Criterion transfer. Fresh and jazzy, CLEO follows its heroine as she waits the titular 2 hours for the results of a test from cancer. Sounds grim, but in Varda's hands, CLEO's magical. The sort of movie where actor improvisation really delivers the goods, with an off-the-cuff charm that's very appealing. Wonderful cinematography, as the heroine races around Paris, and a charmingly grave romantic conclusion that's very satisfying. A good introduction to Varda's work.
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Summary: Touching, intelligent, funny movie from Agnès Varda.
Review: The story about a lost soul in the Paris of the 60's gives us a lot to think about, how our lives can change in two different ways at once, and what it takes to set us free from old attitudes and principles that no longer fit our lives.
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Summary: Varda's Cleo has more mirrors than anything by Fassbinder.
Review: There are so many visual tricks going on in this film it can make you "breathless". Keep an eye open for the movie poster of Un Chien Andalou that appears center screen after Cleo's taxi journey from the Right to the Left Bank. The Right Bank Paris shops and their signs are used to articulate Cleo's story. The sequence when Cleo window shops and then buys a hat explains her existential dilemma through her surroundings. She is about to face the possibility of death, she is single, she would like to be married, but that would be too practicle for her, so she buys a winter hat in the summer. Death is as absurd as life. In the end she meets a soilder going off to fight in the Algerian revolution, he also faces the possibility of an absurd death. Together, Cleo and the audience realize that love is the only thing that makes sense.
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Summary: Queen of the Left Bank
Review: This film is one of the finest from the Left Bank film directors. It is not very often that we find such highly regarded female directors, especially in Europe. Agnes Varda, through this film, captures the feelings of "the woman in the spotlight" through Cleo, the seemingly girlish, conceited, but ultimately redeemed pop singer.We follow Cleo around Paris for 2 hours as she waits for medical test results that could very well be fatal, much of the time being played out onscreen without interruption. Though slow moving at first, we come to understand each of the characters she comes in contact with, Angele, her lover, Antonio, through their treatment of Cleo. Also notable is the changes which are visible in Cleo, made quite aparant by the master filmmaking of Varda. While at first the object of gazes and adoration, she eventually begins to look outward independently as the camara takes her POV, signifying Cleo's own realization that life as a simply object and plaything of others is wholly unsatisfying. Note: The film-within-the-film stars none other than the French filmmaker and intimate friend of Varda, Godard (Breathless, A Band of Outsiders).
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Summary: How many ways can you spell the word "perfect?"
Review: This is one of the best films I've ever seen. It's one of those rare pieces of art that becomes more and more meaningful each time you watch it. I've seen it over 9 times and it just keeps surprising me. What a shame that Agnes Varda got all mushy into the husband thing and ignored her career.... We'll never know.
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Summary: a film which hits home for me
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. As a cancer survivor, I feel for the woman in this movie. This film occurs in almost real-time like the TV series 24. The 90 minute film covers the events between 5 and 7 PM as a woman awaits the results of a biopsy. She goes through town and meets various people. The film has great acting and has a full-color sequence at the beginning of the film when cleo is seeing a Tarot card reader in an attempt to predict what will happen to her. The original French title of the film is "Cléo de 5 à 7" The Criterion DVD does not have any special features which is rather unusual for a Criterion Collection DVD.
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Summary: An atmosphere for each scene
Review: totally engrosses the viewer to live the 2 hours that Cleo lives. Varda sets divided then sets up the chapters of the film into atmospheres that reveal so mouch more about our lead chararacter. I have had the distinct pleasure of seeing this film on the big screen and was awestruck afterward. The film continues to amaze me in the effect it can have in drawing you into Cleo's world. You are drawn in and watch as she makes her own personal revolution. Beautiul cinematography, wonderfully spare musical score, and great composition of scenes.
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Summary: Impressive: Thought-Provoking & Beautiful
Review: What to praise most? The beauty and talent of Corinne Marchand as Cleo? The superior directing skill and incomparable style of Agnes Varda? The subtle, natural grace with which this film tells a story? Or the wonder of Paris as captured 40 years ago in this elegant film? All of these glories add up to a viewing experience that is amazing and entirely enjoyable. Even when this film displays troubling emotions and takes us into disturbing areas of thought, there is a gentle quality to the handling of the material. It never bogs us down with dreariness -- this is a picture of a woman willfully struggling to face her fate with control and without morbidity. And the film portrays that dignity well. This is a completely spectacular film!
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Summary: HIghly original film a one-of-a-kind classic!
Review: What's wonderful about this film has already been pretty well described in many of the preceding reviews. I'd just like to add two things. First, the songs & performances of Michel LeGrand & his partner are terrific _ they show LeGrand at his most inventive & infectious. Two, after reading several of the previous reviews, it occurs to me that Cléo de 5 à 7 works like a litmus test on its audience. Those who can invest this film with their own life-experiences, who can "fill in the blanks" with their personal emotions & thoughts, will be richly rewarded. Those who cannot, those who need plenty of exposition & explanations, will find it slow, ponderous, even superficial, because it will literally be over their heads. C'est la vie.
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