Cléo de 5 à 7 by Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I is one of my favourite documentaries, passionate and thoughtful and personal, about people who glean, who comb through trash and recycling, who live off of what is leftover. I was eager to see her earlier work, as part of the French New Wave. Varda started out as a still photographer, and her films are evidence of her careful attention to framing, to detail and photographic stunts like images reflecting off mirrors and windowpanes. Cléo from 5 to 7 is full of such details and other New Wave signatures like jumpcuts, long tracking shots, and stylish, showy editing. The story follows a young singer, Cléo, who is waiting results from a medical test. At 5 P.M. her fortune teller turns up the Death card for her and refuses to read her palm. In the following two hours, she wanders the streets of Paris, seeing omens of Death everywhere, until finally she meets a young soldier who gives her some hope and comfort as he offers to accompany her to the hospital to get the results. What a great concept! The movie doesn't quite live up to its potential, but it's absorbing and entertaining to watch anyways. Varda's later films show much more depth, and we've put 3 more of her films on our to-rent list.