Varda's "Cleo at 5 to 7" is one of Varda's early works. It reviews French culture through a feminist lens, while also conducting character studies in this setting. The film also touches on a theme of death and transience that runs through every aspect of our protagonist's life.
The tone of the film is a self-conscious feminism. First of all, we have a heroine and she doesn't fit the typical image of a woman in French new wave movies because she's not sexually promiscuous and doesn't need emotional or financial support from a man, despite her own success being marked by a tarot soothsayer It comes down to the influence of her lover.
Most of the main characters in the film are also women, first a female fortune teller and then a female taxi driver who believes the job is not a particularly safe career choice for women. Later in the film, we see Cleo's friend, nude model Dorothy, saying: "Her body makes her happy, not proud. This is a very popular social topic today. This message contrasts with Cleo's lack of confidence in her physical appearance, despite her meeting all of society's standards for beauty. The characters in the film that show any level of sophistication are women. The male characters seem all superficial and stereotyped, showing no deeper or hidden desires. Her lover admires her only for her outer beauty, her pianist treats her only as an instrument, and the busker performs grotesque acts to prove her worth. Cleo was always disgusted, disappointed, or frightened by most of them. But somehow she needs their attention or she loses her sense of self-worth; that's how those men wield power over her.
Varda takes the audience on a tour by having us follow Cleo through the streets, and subtly engages us in the day-to-day affairs of the city in the process. Overheard conversations, street performances, urban installations, the various places we visit due to Cleo's constant movement—they all reflect Varda's personal attachment to Paris, from which Cleo can It is seen as a cinematic love letter written by Varda to the city of Paris in the early 1960s. These characteristics, combined with frequent commentary on French politics, especially the war with Algeria (which we heard on the radio, in restaurants, and from Antoine, he said was a "nothing") "Battle of Meaning"), also seems to be aimed at capturing and revealing the actual lives of real people in Paris, which the film does so well, giving the film a documentary feel at times.
In France, between 5pm and 7pm is said to be the most auspicious time for lovers to meet. Varda turns that tradition on its head completely, leaving her protagonist thinking about his own death almost all the time during this otherwise romantic period. Varda's use of expressionist cues can be seen here. We can see another expressionist tool in the example of the mirror. Mirrors tended to follow Cleo wherever she went—at the tarot player, then at the restaurant, at the hat shop, at home, on the street, and finally when she and Dorothy left. While her doom was imminent, she kept asserting her worth by confirming her physical attractiveness in the mirror, but when Dorothy broke her hand mirror, she couldn't even do that, she doomed herself The impending fear became stronger.
The film is ultimately a character study. We, the audience, spend two hours, mostly with protagonist Cleo, seeing her world from her own perspective. We'll hear what she thinks and what she hears. Varda manipulates the passage of time in the film very subtly in order to give us the feeling that the events in the film are happening in real time, and it enhances the audience's participation in Cleo's life.
As we've seen, Cleo is a contradictory person. She is superstitious, believes in omens and consults tarot fortune tellers, but loves black, often wears black clothes, and she even has a black cat. She thought she was going to die, but was still proud of her beauty. She is a singer, but she hates her own songs. She is vain, but also relies on the approval of others. She's talented, but doesn't believe she can make hits. She is sensitive, but often ruthless. She wants attention from others, but also realizes that most people just pretend to care about her. She buys winter hats in summer. In the end, she was relieved when doctors casually confirmed that she did indeed have cancer. Cleo doesn't know what he wants so far. She just knows what she doesn't want, like her relationship, her job, the way her peers treat her.
Cleo, like many people in reality, at least found a tinge of comfort in the certainty. The turmoil within her comes only from uncertainty about the future, not from possible impending doom. The audience engages in her emotional energy through the movements of the camera (swaying from side to side during the song, stalking her on the street, pinning on her at the end). The mood of the film also eases towards the end, as she relaxes in the company of Antoine. This is conveyed through a flatter, low-contrast image, smoother camera movement, and quieter background sounds, right down to the final clip.
Cleo can be seen as Varda's personal meditation on life and death, her constant emphasis on the uncertainty of life by continually juxtaposing images of youth and rebirth with discussions of illness and tragedy. The impermanence of life, the anxiety of rejecting it, and the relief of accepting it are all beautifully portrayed in this film. In the end, all of the fortune-tellers' predictions came true, except for one - the one she chose to hide from Cleo - her death prediction. One can speculate from the accuracy of her past that Cleo will inevitably die. But if we choose not to be superstitious about tarot cards like our Cleo does, this leaves an answer without question. But it certainly succeeds in planting a disturbing thought in its viewers: that life, no matter how we know it, is short.
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