CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (CLÉO DE 5 À 7)
Sunday 8 March 4pm
France, 1962. Directed by Agnès Varda. 89 min. NR
Presented in French with English subtitles.
Often called a masterpiece, the iconic film has a strong feminine viewpoint and raises questions about how women are perceived. Walk through Paris with Cléo, on the longest day of the year, as she awaits the results of a recent biopsy. Her introspective outlook affects how she approaches the day, from her encounters with friends and acquaintances to what she observes in total strangers around her. The film is superficially about a woman coming to terms with her mortality, which is a common auteurist trait for celebrated Filmmaker Agnès Varda. On a deeper level, the film confronts the traditionally objectified woman by giving Cléo her own vision. She cannot be constructed through the gaze of others, which is often represented through a motif of reflections and Cleo's ability to strip her body of "to-be-looked-at-ness" attributes, such as clothing or wigs.
The French New Wave film mixes documentary and fiction and features a wonderful score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine and Jean-Claude Brialy.
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