Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) poster & wallpaper
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Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blanc, Michel Legrand ... see more see more... , Jose-Luis De Villalonga , Jean-Claude Brialy , Eddie Constantine , Danièle Delorme , Sami Frey , Alan Scott , Jean-Luc Godard , Anna Karina , Yves Robert

Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cleo de cinq a sept), per its title, concentrates on two hours in the life of a woman. Those hours are desperate ones, in that Cleo, a pop singer, awaits the results of her tests for... read more read more... cancer. Director Agnes Varda stages the film in "real" rather than subjective time, its various episodes divided into chapters, using significant Tarot cards. During the allotted time, Cleo visits her friends, tries to sing her worries away, spends money, and cries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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21 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Agnès Varda

Release Date: January 1, 1961

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DVD Release Date: May 16, 2000

Stats: 312 reviews

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Agnes Varda Corinne Marchand Antoine Bourseiller On the set in Cléo's loft Dorothée Blank & Corinne Marchand
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Flixster Reviews (312)

  • bookmunki
    December 7, 2008
    bookmunki
    while the plot is quite simple, a young capricious woman awaiting test results, this is filmmaking at its finest. varda creates a new fiction by merging real time, cinema verite, and multiperspectives. WOW!
  • bbcfloridabound
    June 15, 2008
    bbcfloridabound
    This is from the Criterion Film Collection. I guess its because I am not french or maybe its just a bad run of French Films lately but I think I am going to pass on the french films for a while, I tried I really did, good Black and white background scenes, but is was painfull to... read more hang in there till the end.
  • DrBenway
    April 22, 2008
    DrBenway
    This film starts Cleo off a rich, spoiled brat, and ends up finding both love and a certain joie de vivre (pardon my fronch). Cleo is a beautiful but somewhat shallow pop singer nervously waiting for the results of a cancer test. The film follows Cléo for two hours as she encoun... read moreters the important people in her career as well as strangers she meets in between. Real life seems to continue with documentary styled filmmaking that is about looking and being looked at.
  • anastasia57001
    November 7, 2009
    anastasia57001
    While waiting for the result of a biopsy, the French singer Cléo, visits a fortune teller; drinks coffee and buys a new hat with her housekeeper; is visited by her lover and her composers; visits her model friend Dorothée; learning much from her, who poses nude for sculptors, and... read more a passing soldier named Antoine whom she meets by accident in the park. We follow her for these two hours of her life, as she cruises through the streets of Paris on foot, by cars and taxis, from one place to the next. She finally, becomes a subject instead of being an object: Cleo's progress through the film develops from an almost narcissistic preoccupation with her own image- the first part of the film is full of mirrors and reflections- through a more direct encounter with that world and its inhabitants.
  • robfearon
    March 5, 2009
    robfearon
    Cleo from 5 to 7 was initially baffling, but it's making more sense now I'm getting to know the French New Wave.
  • threefolddado
    March 2, 2009
    threefolddado
    French New Wave film about the working of fear into acceptance, set in real time and makes innovative use of reflective images. This is also fantastic snapshot of Parisian streets circa 1962, filmed with such grace and style, you feel as if you've been there.
  • cacutshaw
    January 14, 2009
    cacutshaw
    Fantastic film from the grandmother of the French New Wave. The opening is a knockout with Cleo (or is it Flora?) visiting a fortuneteller to find out her fate. Over the next 90 minutes (told in real time with title cards announcing the time periods) Cleo basically lives her da... read moreily, spoiled life while the omen of death is always near by. Despite this though, it's a really nice film in the end. Just a great film.
  • Turfseer
    March 27, 2010
    Turfseer
    Recording Artist's 'Bad Hair Day'

    *** This review may contain spoilers ***

    Agnes Varda's 'Cleo from 5 to 7' is the story of Cleo, a relatively unknown pop artist, with a few songs on the radio to her credit, who now faces the very real possibility that she might be suffering fr... read moreom terminal cancer. We follow Cleo in real time, wandering around Paris, waiting for the results of medical tests that will inform her (and the viewer) of her physician's fateful diagnosis.

    Varda condenses Cleo's journey of anxiety from the two hours of the title (5 to 7) to an actual hour and a half. We learn from the documentary "Remembrances" (which can be found as part of the DVD extras in the Criterion Collection) that anytime a clock was shown during the film, it would accurately reflect the time elapsed in Cleo's journey.

    The film begins with Cleo's visit to a Tarot Card reader who reinforces her belief that indeed the diagnosis will turn out to be cancer. Cleo's bad mood is made even worse when two songwriters (one played by a very young Michel LeGrand) come over and tease her as if she's a ten year old child. Cleo stalks out of her apartment and grows more self-absorbed (she plays one of her own songs on a jukebox in a café, expecting to get noticed by the patrons only to find herself ignored by them).

    Varda focuses on Cleo's internal strife as opposed to developing any kind of compelling conflict between the quirky characters she encounters. For most of the film, Cleo is presented as shallow and narcissistic?it's hard to like her at all. Instead, Varda is content to draw us into the sights and sounds of a bustling urban landscape. The film is full of snippets of conversation including long forgotten news items (a gift from Khurschev to JFK is mentioned over the car radio) along with non-actors filmed eating their lunch as the fictional story unfolds before our eyes.

    Despite a plethora of vignettes, there's very little story arc in 'Cleo'. For me, the ending was a bit of a cop out. After all the self-hatred, Cleo's mood changes from positively dour to semi-exuberant. All it takes is the companionship of sweet-talking Antoine, the soldier just back from Algeria, who knows how to 'treat her like a lady' coupled with her oncologist's terse pronouncement that two months of chemotherapy will make her into a new woman! How many people do you know who are positively giddy after being told that they're facing two months of chemo? Varda clearly wants all of us to give 'Cleo' a 'pass'. All the shallowness, the self-absorption of this character is nothing more than a portrait of a woman under extreme stress. Cleo is to be forgiven since she's 'not in her right mind'. Wouldn't you be having a 'bad hair day' if you were facing a cancer diagnosis? Varda doesn't want us to judge Cleo's book by its unhinged cover (remember, it's not REALLY her!).

    More interesting than the film itself is the documentary "Remembrances". I found it fascinating seeing what the actors look like after all these years. It's hard to believe that the film's stars, Marchand and Bourseiller, had not seen each other since the making of the film back in 1961. You'll also get to see how much has changed (and how much as remained the same) in terms of the Parisian landscape over the years.

    Cleo from 5 to 7 often feels more like a documentary than a fictional narrative. I marvel at the cinematography which appears to be way ahead of its time. But clearly 'Cleo' has been placed on an undeserved pedestal in the pantheon of art house fare. Without compelling conflict, Cleo falls back on the internal arc of a stressed out, petulant pop singer. And despite all the nice visuals, I keep asking, why should anyone care?
  • xmkatx
    July 26, 2008
    xmkatx
    After renting this twice in the past, I finally watched this movie. It's done really well, I love the shots in the beginning when they're riding in the cab. It always astonishes me how people drive in different countries. Anyway, it kinda loses steam in the end and there were som... read moree scenes I didn't care for, but those scenes were done really well. I'm definitely going to check out Agnes Varda's other works.
  • columbiatch
    May 16, 2008
    columbiatch
    A very charming and humorous tour of 60's Paris as we follow Cleo, a spoiled pop star as she anxiously wait for her medical test result, from going to a fortuneteller to meetings with her boyfriend and composers, to running an errand for a friend. The film has some of the same ki... read morend of spirit as Breathless, only it's far more enjoyable and interesting. It also doesn't hurt that Corinne Marchand is very easy on the eyes.

View All Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Ed Halter
November 21, 2006
Ed Halter, Village Voice

Varda transforms the typical French cinema gamine into a complex, tragic figure: the girl who's all too good at playing plaything, forced to face the hollowness of her youth. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 9, 2005
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Generally, Mlle. Varda is so absorbed with her camera stunts, as she is in that scene in the hat shop or when she is screening that comedy short, that the essential concentration on the heroine is neg... Full Review

Derek Malcolm
May 6, 2010
Derek Malcolm, This is London

Definitely a document from lost-past times. Full Review

Peter Bradshaw
April 30, 2010
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

The Parisian streetscapes are beautiful and thrilling, and the tarot scene at the beginning, combined with overheard fragments of anxious city lives, give this something of TS Eliot. Full Review

Tim Robey
April 29, 2010
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

Race to see Agnes Varda's exquisite 1962 New Wave masterpiece, about an hour and a half in the life of a gorgeous, possibly dying chanteuse. Full Review

David Parkinson
April 29, 2010
David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

One of the Nouvelle Vague's boldest achievements. Full Review

Leo Robson
April 29, 2010
Leo Robson, Financial Times

Like many New Wave films, Cléo from 5 to 7 alternates between ambiguity and charm on the one hand, vagueness and whimsy on the other. Full Review

David Parkinson
April 29, 2010
David Parkinson, Radio Times

This remarkable feature typifies all that was good in French film-making during its celebrated New Wave. Full Review

Phil Villarreal
January 1, 2007
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star

Varda could have stopped after "Cleo From 5 to 7" with the assurance that she'd contributed more to cinema than most directors. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
November 13, 2006
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Varda uses her documentary skills to take an objective approach to the material, rather than a sentimental one. It's amazing how much can happen in two hours. Full Review

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