Cleo de 5 a 7 (DVD, 2000, Criterion Collection)

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Description

Agnes Varda's signature strategy of mixing documentary and fiction comes to fruition in this intimate and fluid portrait of two hours in the life of pop singer Cleo Victoire (Corrine Marchand) as she restlessly awaits the results of a cancer test. With a distinctly feminist take on the French New Wave films of the early 1960s, Varda's film examines Cleo's banal yet extraordinary afternoon as she traverses Paris, bouncing back and forth between various men, intercepting and avoiding friends, enemies, superstitions, chance, and eventually love. The camera follows at breakneck speed as Cleo's existential ennui pulls her through the city (beautifully captured by Jean Rabier's sweeping cinematography). Lively characters populate Cleo's journey, ranging from a tough female cabdriver, Cleo's mothering assistant, her blas� boyfriend, and finally a talkative and intriguing stranger, a young soldier (Antoine Bourseiller) spending his last hours in Paris before shipping off to war. As Cleo's perspectives are completely rearranged by the specter of possible illness, Varda describes a world of life, possibilities, and love.