Cléo from 5 to 7
September 23rd, 2015

Courtesy of The Criterion Collection:

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Tidbits:

• Cannes Film Festival – 1962

“I’m not interested in seeing a film just made by a woman – not unless she is looking for new images.”

The only female director of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda has been called both the movement’s mother and its grandmother. The fact that some have felt the need to assign her a specifically feminine role, and the confusion over how to characterize that role, speak to just how unique her place in this hallowed cinematic movement—defined by such decidedly masculine artists as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut—is. Varda not only made films during the nouvelle vague, she helped inspire it. Her self-funded debut, the fiction-documentary hybrid 1956’s La Pointe Courte is often considered the unofficial first New Wave film; when she made it, she had no professional cinema training (her early work included painting, sculpting, and photojournalism). Though not widely seen, the film got her commissions to make several documentaries in the late fifties. In 1962, she released the seminal nouvelle vague film Cléo from 5 to 7; a bold character study that avoids psychologizing, it announced her official arrival. Over the coming decades, Varda became a force in art cinema, conceiving many of her films as political and feminist statements, and using a radical objectivity to create her unforgettable characters. She describes her style as cinécriture (writing on film), and it can be seen in formally audacious fictions like Le bonheur and Vagabond as well as more ragged and revealing autobiographical documentaries like The Gleaners and I and The Beaches of Agnès.

Filmography:

• Faces Places (2017)
• The Beaches of Agnes (2008)
• Cinevardaphoto (2005)
• The Gleaners and I (2000)
• The Universe of Jacques Demy (1995)
• One Hundred and One Nights (1995)
• The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993)
• Jacquot (1991)
• Le Petit Amour (1988)
• Jane B. par Agnes V. (1988)
• Vagabond (1985)
• Mur Murs (1981)
• Documenteur (1981)
• One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977)
• Les créatures (1969)
• Lions Love (1969)
• Far From Vietnam (1968)
• Le Bonheur (1966)
• Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962)
• La Pointe Courte (1954)

Here is a curated selection of links shared on our Facebook page for additional insight/information:

• 8/31/15 – Today via The Criterion Collection: “Just a casual courtyard chat between Agnès Varda and Guillaume-en-Égypte” – link
• 9/2/15 – Need an Agnès Varda primer prior to our upcoming series on the grandmother of the French New Wave at Canisius College this fall? Helen Carter’s summery overview in Senses of Cinema serves as a perfect introduction! – link
• 9/3/15 – Wonderful interview w/ Agnès Varda on her home on the rue Daguerre, Paris via Sight & Sound – link
• 9/11/15 – “One of the most provocative aspects of Cléo from 5 to 7, at least for modern audiences accustomed to more prickly feminist statements (Baise-moi and the works of Catherine Breillat come immediately to mind), are the unresolved hints of feminism that are sometimes countered with anachronistically traditional gender politics. Hardcore feminists are likely to be alienated by the final chapter, in which Varda seems to be making the case that a reliable guy (here, Antoine) is really all Cléo needs to make right in her world. The ending is actually much trickier than that, but it’s certainly food for thought that the Legrand songs that Cléo earlier derided as misguided attempts to mold her persona also happen to underscore her emotional epiphanies in the park.” Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine – link
• 9/18/15 – “It is easy to hail Varda as a pioneer of feminist cinema––a label she resists––but Cléo from 5 to 7 was, way before its time, already a complex “postfeminist” portrait of a woman. Cléo is, after all, no idealized archetype.” Adrian Martin, “Cléo from 5 to 7: Passionate Time” – link
• 9/21/15 – “One of the most provocative aspects of Cleo from 5 to 7, at least for modern audiences accustomed to more prickly feminist statements (Baise-moi and the works of Catherine Breillat come immediately to mind), are the unresolved hints of feminism that are sometimes countered with anachronistically traditional gender politics. Hardcore feminists are likely to be alienated by the final chapter, in which Varda seems to be making the case that a reliable guy (here, Antoine) is really all Cléo needs to make right in her world. The ending is actually much trickier than that, but it’s certainly food for thought that the Legrand songs that Cléo earlier derided as misguided attempts to mold her persona also happen to underscore her emotional epiphanies in the park.” ★★★★ Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine – link
• 9/21/15 – “The Cultivate Cinema Circle has become a cinephile must-attend in only a few months, screening such classics as Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt and Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy. For its fall season, Cultivate has chosen to honor French New Wave icon Agnès Varda, a wonderfully fitting figure for a season-long focus.” Christopher Schobert, The Buffalo News – link
• 9/22/15 – Did you know the brilliant feminist film journal cléo was named after Agnès Varda’s eponymous cinematic work Cléo from 5 to 7? – link
• 9/24/15 – Great news! Two Agnès Varda rarities – Jane B. and Kung-Fu Master – are headed for a US re-release thanks to Cinelicious Pics! – link
• 10/6/15 – Agnès Varda shares credit for making an impact on feminist cinema in Kelly Gallagher’s riot grrrl infused THE HERSTORY OF THE FEMALE FILMMAKER! – link
• 10/9/15 – Via The Criterion Collection today: “Agnès Varda keeps popping up in the most unexpected places. The indefatigable eighty-seven-year-old filmmaker stopped by our offices this week, along with her daughter, Rosalie, to say hello and fill us in on what she’s been up to. We’re happy to report that this legend of the French New Wave—and beyond—shows no signs of slowing down.” – link
• 10/10/15 – “At a time when audiences are hungry for a diversity of stories on screen, we’ve compiled a list of recent films directed by women that everyone should see, as well as a selection of older titles which continue to inspire us” Leah Meyerhoff, founder of Film Fatales – link
• 10/12/15 – Violet Lucca speaks with Agnès Varda back in 2011 for Film Comment. – link
• 10/18/15 – At 87, Agnès Varda continues to make the news with a new video essay by Kevin B. Lee on her work found over at Fandor – link