383. Cleo de 5 a 7/Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Running Time: 90 minutes
Directed By: Agnes Varda
Written By: Agnes Varda
Main Cast: Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothee Blanc, Michel Legrand

DOWN ON THE STREETS OF PARIS

Moving right along and drawing one step closer to my short-term goal of 401 movies watched, I come to "Cleo from 5 to 7", another Agnes Varda film and one that I've been eyeballing for quite sometime. I say that a lot, don't I?

The film revolves around it's title character, Florence a.k.a Cleopatra a.k.a. Cleo (Marchand), a pop singer who, when the film starts, is having her fortune read in an attempt to try and get some good news about some medical tests that she recently had done. Unfortunately for Cleo, the fortune teller doesn't see a bright future, scaring Cleo to death and leading her to believe that she is in for certain doom. In reality, the tests won't be back until around 7pm and when our story begins, it's 5pm (hence the title). The film is told nearly in real time (from 5 to 7 doesn't equal 90 minutes, no matter what country you're in) and takes the viewer alongside Cleo as she awaits the results of her tests, trying her best to cope with the hours ahead of her. She goes around the city, from her home to the backseats of taxis to visit friends and ultimately to a nearby park, where she meets Antoine. Antonie is a soldier in the Algerian War and later in the day, he'll be taken back to the battlefields. He decides to spend the last moments of his three week leave with Cleo, as he accompanies her to the hospital to find out the results of her tests.

You know, this film just didn't do a whole lot for me, to be blunt about it. I'd never seen it before and during the months that I've spent eyeballing this one and knowing the synopsis, I have to admit I was really excited to finally check it out. The premise of a woman walking the streets of Paris as she anxiously awaits the results of her medical tests, just sounded like something I'd be down for. Especially when you add in the fact that the film was a part of the French New Wave and not a Hollywood, sympathy-getter. I knew the story, coming out of France, wouldn't intentionally tug on our heart strings and I expected a filmmaker like Varda to present the film rather bluntly, whereas an American filmmaker (lets say Ron Howard, for arguments sake) would try and draw as many tears out of the faces of the weak minded moviegoers as he could, using every cliche in the process. What I got was about half of what I expected, however, in my opinion, the story was just a little too emotionless. There was never a point in this film (except for maybe the end) when I felt compassion for Cleo. Whether or not I was supposed to feel compassion for her, I don't know, but I'd assume that when you give your main character cancer, you intend to evoke at least a little sympathy for her. I had none for this character.

SPOILER ALERT!

I normally like films where the time frame is kept short and the premise is kept simple and that's what you have here, except there's something missing. For one thing, the dialogue, as far as I'm concerned, is drivel. It just isn't very well written and I often times found myself drowning out the dialogue and found my mind wandering. It just didn't flow as well as it should have. I did, however, enjoy this film for the same reasons that a Parisian might enjoy watching Woody Allen's "Manhattan" and that's for the visual feast of a foreign city that I'll probably never experience in person. Varda takes us right down to the heart of Paris and sticks us in the middle of the city and lets us roam with her main character. The final chapter (Cleo & Antoine) is also a very fantastic piece of this film and it really picks up the entire movie and ends with a bang. The dialogue seems to flow better in this portion and I actually start to somewhat feel for the characters a little bit. The idea of a complete stranger being able to ease Cleo's mind is really heartwarming to me. It shows that sometimes we have to rely on unexpected things to help us through difficult times and that things are always a little easier if you have a companion.

RATING: 6.5/10 Quick review tonight, but I think I hit all the bullet points. It's something that I can't see making the TOP 20, but also something that I could see warming up to with another view.

MOVIES WATCHED: 374
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 627

December 21, 2011 12:22am