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Cléo from 5 to 7
Cléo from 5 to 7
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Agnès Varda
Written by	Agnès Varda
Produced by	Georges de Beauregard; Carlo Ponti
Starring	Corinne Marchand; Antoine Bourseiller; Dominique Davray; Dorothée Blanc; Michel Legrand
Cinematography	Jean Rabier
Edited by	Janine Verneau
Music by	Michel Legrand
Distributed by	Athos Films; Ciné-Tamaris
Release date	11 April 1962;
Running time	90 minutes
Countries	France; Italy
Language	French

Cléo from 5 to 7 (French: Cléo de 5 à 7) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Agnès Varda.^[2]

The film follows Florence, played by Corinne Marchand, a young singer known professionally as "Cléo Victoire", from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on June 21, as she waits to hear the results of a biopsy that will possibly confirm a diagnosis of stomach cancer.

The film stars Corinne Marchand as the titular character and includes cameos by Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine, and Jean-Claude Brialy as characters in a silent film, while composer Michel Legrand, who wrote the film's score, plays Bob, the pianist. It was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.^[3]

Plot

Singer Cléo Victoire attends a tarot card reading with a fortune teller, who tells her there is an evil force in Cléo's life, and that she sees a doctor with a hazardous task. She also sees a meeting with a talkative young man in her future. The fortune teller then pulls The Hanged Man, meaning that a change for the worse is about to happen in Cléo's life, and asks if she is ill, which Cléo affirms. She then proceeds to pull Death. Although the fortune teller emphasises that the Death card can indicate a profound change in the person's life other than death itself, Cléo believes that she is doomed. She asks the fortune teller for a palm reading, but the fortune teller says that she cannot read palms.

While distraught from her visit to the fortune teller, Cléo meets her maid, Angèle, at a café and recounts the results of the tarot card reading. Professing her intention to kill herself if she does have cancer, Cléo cries, and the owner of the café gives her coffee to calm down. Cléo and Angèle then go hat shopping, where Cléo buys a black fur hat, despite Angèle telling her that it would be unsuitable for summer weather. Cléo wants to wear the hat home, but Angèle reminds her that it is bad luck to wear something new on a Tuesday. They have the shopkeeper send the hat to Cléo's home, and Cléo and Angèle take a taxi home in time for Cléo's rehearsal.

On the ride home, one of Cléo's songs plays, and they listen to the radio, hearing news coverage of the Algerian War. They have a conversation with the female taxi driver as she muses about the dangers of her job. Towards the end of the taxi ride, Cléo grows nauseated and attributes it to her illness. Upon returning home, Cléo cannot breathe, and Angèle tells her to do some exercise. Before Cléo's lover enters the building, Angèle tells Cléo not to tell him that she is ill because "men hate illness". Her lover, a very busy man, tells her that he only has time to stop by for a kiss and cannot go on a vacation with her, but will try to take her out on Friday night. Asking Cléo if she is ill, she replies that she is, but he does not take her seriously.

Once Cléo's lover leaves, Bob, a pianist, and Maurice, a songwriter, arrive at her home for a rehearsal. Bob and Maurice pretend to be doctors after Angèle tells them that Cléo is ill, because "all women like a good joke." However, Cléo does not find their joke funny. Bob goes to the piano, and they begin to practice some of Cléo's songs. As they practice, Cléo's mood quickly darkens after singing the song "Sans toi", which she interprets as ridiculing her fear of death. Saying that everyone spoils her but no one loves her, Cléo leaves.

On the way to a café, Cléo passes a street performer swallowing frogs and spitting them back out. She plays one of her songs at a jukebox in the café and watches if the people around react to it, but no one does. She then goes to a sculpting studio to visit her old friend Dorothée, who is modelling nude for a class of sculptors. After the modelling session is over, Cléo tells Dorothée that she would feel exposed in the nude, while Dorothée claims that her body makes her happy, not proud. Dorothée picks up a package for her friend Raoul, who lent her his car to take it to the cinema where he works. On the way, Cléo tells Dorothée that she is waiting for a test result and afraid of being terminally ill. At the cinema, they watch a silent comedy film from the projection booth, featuring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. In the film, Karina topples over a hose pipe and dies, leaving behind a grieving Godard, but after he takes off his sunglasses, realising that it was only his dark glasses which made the events appear upsetting, the scene repeats in a much lighter tone. Leaving the cinema, Cléo accidentally breaks a mirror, which she considers a bad omen. She and Dorothée pass by the café, learning that a man was killed there. They enter a taxi, where Dorothée tells her that the broken mirror was an omen of the man's death rather than Cléo's.

After having dropped Dorothée off, Cléo has the taxi driver take her to Parc Montsouris. In the park, Antoine, a soldier on leave from the Algerian War, addresses Cléo and tells her that June 21 is the longest day of the year. During their conversation, Cléo tells him that her real name is Florence, and that she is afraid of her illness, while the sensitive Antoine, who encourages her to use her real name, reflects on the meaninglessness of dying in war. He asks her to accompany him to the train station to return to the front if he accompanies her to the hospital to get her test results. At the hospital, the doctor whom Cléo had her appointment with for her results has already left. While Cléo and Antoine sit on a bench outside, the doctor rolls by in his car and tells Cléo that, while the test was positive, her condition is not too serious and two months of radiotherapy will help her. Antoine says that he hates to leave and would like to be with Cléo, and she tells him that he is with her at this moment. Cléo says that her fear seems to be gone, and she seems happy, and they smile at each other.

Cast

Corinne Marchand as Florence / Cléo Victoire
José Luis de Vilallonga as José, Cléo's lover
Loye Payen as Irma
Dominique Davray as Angèle
Serge Korber as Maurice
Dorothée Blanck as Dorothée
Raymond Cauchetier as Raoul
Michel Legrand as Bob
Antoine Bourseiller as Antoine
Robert Postec as Doctor Valineau
Jean Champion as the café owner
Jean-Pierre Taste as the waiter at the café
Renée Duchateau as the seller of hats
Lucienne Marchand as the taxi driver

Critical reception

Cléo from 5 to 7 first appeared on Sight & Sound magazine's Critic's Poll of the great movies of all time in 2002, appearing in 289th place. It rose to number 207 in the 2012 Critic's Poll, and in the 2022 poll reached number 14, making it the third-highest ranking film directed by a woman on the list (after Claire Denis' Beau Travail at number 7 and Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman at number 1).

In 2019, Cléo from 5 to 7 was voted the second greatest film directed by a woman (behind only Jane Campion's The Piano) in a BBC poll of 368 film experts from 84 countries.^[4]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% from 50 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Cléo from 5 to 7 represents a beautifully filmed highlight of the French New Wave that encapsulates the appeal of the era while departing from its narrative conventions."^[5]

References

^ Ungar, Steven (2008). Cléo de 5 à 7. British Film Institute.
^ "Cleo from 5 to 7". unifrance.org. Retrieved 2014-03-17.
^ "Festival de Cannes: Cléo from 5 to 7". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
^ "The 100 greatest films directed by women". BBC Culture. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
^ "Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 16, 2022.