Film Festival 09 - Cleo from 5 to 7
Cléo from 5 to 7
France/Italy 1962, 90m
Director: Agnès Varda
We call her the Grandmother of the French New Wave now, but here's
the film that put young Agnès Varda on the map - or, more
specifically, the streets of 60s Paris. Godard and Anna Karina make
cameo appearances in this still bracing proto-feminist classic. "I
don't know how widely the new 35mm print of Cléo from 5 to 7
will play& but, God, I hope it comes to your town too, because
it sure is wonderful. Out of slight material - a spoiled actress
and pop star, Cléo (Corinne Marchand), wanders the streets
of Paris for two hours, distracted and anxious, while awaiting the
results of a medical test - Varda creates a tapestry of city life,
and a consideration of mortality, that's joyful, simple, daring and
profound& With its lighthearted experimentation and its magical
transformation of a shallow, self-absorbed girl into a romantic
heroine, Cléo is, for me, above all other films of the
French New Wave." - Andrew O'Hehir, salon.com
