Beautiful new print of the film that put the French New Wave’s Agnès Varda on the map. “Joyful, simple, daring and profound… Cléo is, for me, above all other films of the French New Wave.” — Salon.com
“Varda transforms the typical French cinema gamine into a complex, tragic figure.” — Ed Halter, Village Voice
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Cléo from 5 to 7 1962
Cléo de 5 à 7
We call her the grandmother of the French New Wave now but here's the film that put young Agnès Varda on the map – or, more specifically, the streets of 60s Paris. Godard and Anna Karina make cameo appearances in this still bracing protofeminist classic. “I don't know how widely the new 35mm print of Cléo from 5 to 7 will play... but, God, I hope it comes to your town too, because it sure is wonderful. Out of slight material – a spoiled actress and pop star, Cléo (Corinne Marchand), wanders the streets of Paris for two hours, distracted and anxious, while awaiting the results of a medical test – Varda creates a tapestry of city life, and a consideration of mortality, that's joyful, simple, daring and profound... With its lighthearted experimentation and its magical transformation of a shallow, self-absorbed girl into a romantic heroine, Cléo is, for me, above all other films of the French New Wave.” — Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com