Directed by Agnès Varda, Cléo From 5 to 7 was a hugely influential French New Wave film when released in 1962. Like François Truffaut's The 400 Blows screened yesterday, Cléo From 5 to 7 was shot in the streets of Paris among passers-by, giving it a special documentary realism. And because Varda was among the few female French directors of the era, the film centers on women as adults with their own set of complex issues, not as toys for male characters to play with or slap around.
The film stars Corinne Marchand as Florence "Cléo" Victoire, an emerging pop singer who, at 5p.m. on June 21, the first day of summer, fears she has cancer and must wait until 6:30, when she will learn the results of a test. During the interim, Cléo kills time by traveling around Paris, providing us with a look at the city in 1961, when the film was shot. The film combines bustling activity with an inner quiet and stillness as Cléo struggles with her dread and the unknown. Mirrors play a key role in the film as Cléo admires herself while wondering how failing health will affect her looks. "As long as I'm beautiful," she tells herself in the film, "I'm alive." [Photo still above of Corinna Marchand, right, and Dorothée Blanck in Cléo From 5 to 7]
The film's glorious music is by Michel Legrand, who appears at the piano in the film as Bob in a delightfully playful scene. Also tucked away in the movie is Jean-Luc Godard and American actor-singer Eddie Constantine, as the men in the silent film Cléo watches with a friend. Anna Karina plays the woman in that film within a film. Interestingly, the short is about seeing things incorrectly through a pair of sunglasses. [Photo above of Michel Legrand and Corinne Marchand]
Earlier in 1961, Marchand appeared in Jacques Demy's Lola as Daisy, one of the cabaret dancers. I screened the film here several days ago. While Marchand's leading role in Cléo From 5 to 7 was her big break, she preferred to remain in France working intermittently as a film actress until 2017. She recently turned 89. The film was entered in the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. [Photo above of director Agnès Varda, front left, and Corinne Marchand in Cannes, France, in 1962]
Interesting how the film was directed. For the distance shots, Marchand was placed on the streets without a glance from those walking by. But when a handheld camera was used for close-ups and intimacy, curious pedestrians looked directly into the lens. Varda used their unavoidable stares to give us Marchand's perspective, as if her eyes were cameras catching people starring at her beauty as she walked along. In effect, Varda used the public intrusions as she did the mirrors—as a means to show off Cléo's beauty and vanity. [Photo above of Corinne Marchand]
Here's Cléo from 5 to 7, starring Corinne Marchand...
