Only having seen One Sings, The Other Doesn’t, I was excited to explore further the career of director Agnes Varda. Taking advantage of the ‘Voila Varda’ section on the expanded Mubi library, I was finally able to watch her film, Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962; Cléo de 5 à 7), a classic of the French New Wave. The stress of waiting for doctor’s tests results is a relatable endurance test for a hypochondriac like myself, and this is what the film is about: approximately two hours in the life of pop singer Cleo (Corinne Marchand) as she waits tensely for results on biopsy tests tor cancer. Adhering to a real time structure and following Cleo’s afternoon travels across the city, the film creates a layered character in someone who might on the surface seem glamorous and vain, but is wrought with fear and anxiety on the inside. The film is open to everything, the perspectives of other characters who circle around Cleo, the faces of people in the street, the political concerns of the time (the conflict in Algiers), and more. The use of New Wave techniques, drawing on location shooting, repetitive images and takes, symbolic framing, and cross-pollination of genres (at one point the film becomes a music video when Cleo performs a new tune with her song writers; at another point Cleo watches a silent comedy movie with cameos by Jean Luc Godard, Anna Karina and Eddie Constantine). I found Cleo From 5 To 7 to be stylish and observational, empathetic and analytical. This is one of those cases where I was like, yes, it’s immediately clear why this is a celebrated classic, open exploring the city and following the protagonist’s existential wandering. Antoine Bourseiller is also a unique, soulful presence as the soldier she meets in the park. Recommended.
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