Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), by Agnès Varda
When I was a kid, I interpreted non-animated movies as “slices of life”. I often knew nothing about the characters’ lives in the beginning of the movie, and because of that I had a lot of inferences to make. I felt smart making these inferences. Of course, if I watched back then the film that better exemplifies a “slice of life” film, I wouldn’t fully appreciate it. This film is “Cléo from 5 to 7”.
Cléo Victoire (Corinne Marchand) is a singer who is waiting for the result of her cancer screening. She has two hours to wait until the results are handled to her by her doctor. Should she go on with her normal life during these two hours? Should she rethink her habits and relationships? Should she tell people around her that she may have cancer? She decides to do all that.
Cléo’s first impulse is to go to a fortune teller, who uses tarot to know Cléo’s past, present and future. The tarot cards and the table they’re laid on are the only things shot in color in the whole film. Illness and the Death card are in her future. This isn’t the only time when superstition takes center stage in Cléo’s two hours of wait. Her assistant, Angèle (Dominique Davray), is a very superstitious woman. And her friend Dorothee (Dorothée Blanck) breaks a pocket mirror, an omen of bad luck, right before they see that someone had been shot on the streets.
During a rehearsal in her apartment, Cléo is presented a new song called “Sans Toi”. The song expresses all her feelings and sorrows at the time: it’s a song about questioning the truth in love and also about facing death. While she sings, the camera focuses on her face, pregnant with feelings.
When Cléo leaves the apartment after the rehearsal, she wears a black dress and a new black winter hat, and we’re surprised to learn she had been wearing a wig until then. Only now she is the real Florence — because Cléo is a stage name. She goes to a café and turns a jukebox on. At the same time, everybody in the street seems to be looking at her face. It is as if they didn’t know her music, but are aware of what she’s going through.
“Cléo from 5 to 7” is a film made by women to women — there is even a fearless female taxi driver! Of course, I’m not saying that men can’t enjoy it, but the film will probably resonate better with women. Themes like loving a man that doesn’t take you or your career seriously or, in special, the fear of having a disease that may change your body, are relatable. Cléo herself says that, as long as she’s beautiful, she’s not sick. It’s hard to think about the combo cancer and body acceptance in the 1960s.
In the end, we see that the tarot only revealed truths about Cléo. And we learn to accept that we’re playing cards with the destiny.
