Cleo From 5 to 7 - Criterion Collection
by Agn?s Varda
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Antoine Bourseiller, Corinne Marchand, Dominique Davray, Doroth?e Blank, Michel LegrandDirector: Agn?s Varda
Cinematographer: Alain Levent
Cinematographer: Jean Rabier
Cinematographer: Paul Bonis
Writer: Agn?s Varda
Editor: Janine Verneau
Producer: Carlo Ponti
Producer: Georges de Beauregard
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.66:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-05-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Cleo From 5 to 7 - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Sometimes less is simply too little...
Summary: 3 Stars
`Cleo de 5 a 7' is a very soft film that thrives off of the layered performance given by the breathtaking Corinne Marchand. In fact, Marchand's performance is so go that she often deceives the viewer into thinking they are watching a better film then they really are. It's not that `Cleo de 5 a 7' is a bad film; it just doesn't feel complete to me. It feels more like the beginning of something profound, and thus when the film ends I'm left wanting so much more.
The film opens with Cleo visiting a psychic. She's undergoing some health tests and is awaiting the results, and so she has her tarot cards read in order to predict their outcome.
Is she doomed?
After she leaves the psychic we follow her in real time as she prepares to see her doctor. She sings (she's a professional singer), shops, eats, visits and eventually breaks down and reveals the fear dwelling inside her; a fear that is often misconstrued as selfishness. Marchand gives Cleo vulnerability that I'm not sure the script or the film in general would have lent her, so I'm really happy she added those notes. Despite the apparent hollowness of the film, Cleo becomes more and more human to us as the film progresses thanks to Marchand's expert delivery.
I don't want to seem like I'm tearing the film apart, because I'm not. The film is very enjoyable and it does manage to give the audience something to think and or talk about. Cleo's unraveling is poignant and insightful when it comes to understanding the mental breakdown of someone awaiting this kind of new; but I find that the film doesn't take as full advantage of the prose at hand. Like I mentioned, it seems to end too soon after it truly begins.
Maybe this is the fault of the decision to make this a real time film; a film that compasses two short hours (less actually) and so the progression of character is limited to a single afternoon. Personally, if the film had taken a wider scope and maybe started the film when the tests were first taken and then spanned over a few days while she awaited the results it could have been more effective. I think this would have given the writers a chance to really flesh out the characters and give a new life to the film.
Anyways, it isn't bad, it's just not great. All of the acting is very good considering the lack of true character development in the script. Sure, Marchand is the standout, and rightfully so, but the actors who play her friends all excel in there scenes and add glimmers of light to the film. The practice scene in particular, where Cleo sings a new song she's been given, is stellar, and supports some very tender and emotionally convincing performances by everyone involved.
I do wish a few changes had been made, because the prose is intriguing, and Marchand's delicate performance truly deserves better treatment. I know that a lot of people adore this movie, and I enjoyed it, but I cannot help but express my feelings on the films overall effect. It could have been much stronger.
Summary of Cleo From 5 to 7 - Criterion Collection
Agnes Varda, the lone woman in the French New Wave boys' club, made her reputation with her second feature Cleo from 5 to 7, a 90-minute drama set in real time exploring the internal turmoil of a flighty young pop singer who awaits the results of a medical examination for cancer. Leaving behind her elegant, almost antiseptic apartment for the bustle of the Parisian streets, she weaves through crowds and watches street performers while struggling with her fears and self-recriminations, confronting her shortcomings and finding hope in a chance meeting with a young soldier. Varda captures the vibrant social world and its easy rhythms in creamy black and white with smooth long takes, bringing an almost tactile quality to Cleo's personal odyssey, punctuated with chapter titles marking the time until her appointment at the hospital. Corinne Marchand's Cleo enters as a spoiled adolescent, but introspective internal monologues and brief encounters with strangers etch a portrait of a woman hiding her fears under a fa?ade of flightiness, only discarding the mask when she firmly embraces life in the face of possible death. --Sean AxmakerArt House & International DVD Video
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