Saturday, November 10, 2007
Cléo on the Clock
Agnes Varda's Cléo de 5 à 7 is a vibrant flower blooming in the soil of the New Wave surrounded by Breathless, 400 Blows, and others.
Here's the trailer version of the film that reminds me of La Jetee. It is a strange little artifact. There is a still of just about every major shot in the film with very active voice over. It provides major contrast to a film that brims with active and vibrant camera movement, much from a third story building perspective overlooking a 60s Paris in the midst of the Algerian crisis.
Cleo, the spoiled Pop center sees a portion of the film's action from a cab. This scene as they drive through the University district is very strange. In Criterion's essay of the film by Molly Haskell, she says there is a demonstration going on. It looks more like an intoxicated bash to me.
The film's action follows the actions of a spoiled pop singer two hours before she is due to pick up some lab results for cancer. Cléo de 5 à 7 is not in real time. It only runs an hour and a half. The "missing" half hour seems to be eaten up by the compression of editing. The film takes place on the Solstice. And its characters speculate about the fact that it is the longest day of the year and how that impacts the way they feel, etc. Early summer has a kind of shimmer to it where there is something wonderful to begin. Too what impact the year's day of maximum light has on that feeling will remain as much a mystery as what ultimately happens to Cleo and Antoine after the final frame of Varda's masterpiece
posted by well-executed buffet at 4:28 AM
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