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Clo from 5 to 7
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Wikipedia article
'Clo from 5 to 7' ( ) is a 1962 French New Wave film written and directed by Agns Varda. The film follows a young singer, Florence "Clo" Victoire, at 5 p.m. on June 21, as she waits until 6:30 p.m. to hear the results of a medical test that will possibly confirm a diagnosis of cancer. The film is known for its handling of several of the themes of existentialism, including discussions of mortality, the idea of despair, and leading a meaningful life. The film has a strong feminine viewpoint belonging to French feminism and raises questions about how women are perceived, especially in French society. Mirrors appear frequently to symbolize self-obsession, which Clo embodies.
The film includes cameos by Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine and Jean-Claude Brialy as characters in the silent film Raoul shows Clo and Dorothe, while composer Michel Legrand, who wrote the film's score, plays "Bob the pianist". It was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Singer Clo Victoire is having a tarot card reading with a fortune teller, who tells her there is an evil force in Clo's life, and that she sees a doctor with a hazardous task. She also sees a meeting with a talkative young man in her future. The fortune teller then pulls the hanged man card, meaning that a change to the worse in Clo's life is about to happen, and asks if she is ill, which Cleo affirms. She then proceeds to pull the death card. Although the fortune teller emphasises that the death card can also simply mean a profound change in the person's life, Clo believes that she is doomed. She asks the fortune teller to read her palm, who rejects her request.
While distraught from her visit to the fortune teller, Clo meets her maid, Angle, at a caf and recounts the results of the tarot card reading, claiming that if it's cancer, she'll kill herself. Clo cries and the owner of the caf gives her coffee to calm down. Clo and Angle proceed to go hat shopping, where Clo buys a black fur hat, despite Angle constantly reminding her that it's summertime. Clo wants to wear the hat home, but Angle reminds her that it's Tuesday, and it's bad luck to wear something new on a Tuesday. They have the shopkeeper send the hat to Clo's home, and Clo and Angle take a taxi home in time for Clo's rehearsal.
On the ride home, one of Clo's songs plays, and they listen to the radio, hearing current news coverage including the Algerian War. They have a conversation with the female taxi driver as she muses about the dangers of her job. Towards the end of the taxi ride, Clo grows nauseous and attributes it to her illness. Upon returning home, Clo cannot breathe, and Angle tells her to do some exercise. Before Clo's lover, the man who the fortune teller mentioned earlier, enters the building, Angle tells Clo not to tell him that she's ill, because "men hate illness". Her lover, a very busy man, tells her that he only has time to stop by for a kiss and can't even go on a vacation with her, but will try to take her out on Friday. Asking Clo if she is ill, she replies that she is, but he doesn't take her seriously.
Once Clo's lover leaves, Bob, a pianist, and Maurice, a writer, arrive at her home for her rehearsal. Bob and Maurice perform a spontaneous comedy routine pretending to be doctors once Angle tells them that Clo is ill, because "all women like a good joke." However, Clo does not find their joke funny. Bob goes to the piano, and they begin to practice some of Clo's songs. As they practice, Clo's mood quickly darkens after singing the song "Sans toi." Clo feels like all people do is exploit her and that it won't be long until she's just a puppet for the music industry. Saying that everyone spoils her but no one loves her, Clo leaves everyone behind in her home.
On the way to a caf, Clo passes a street performer swallowing frogs and spitting them back out on a huge wave of water. She plays one of her songs at a jukebox in the caf and watches if the people around react to it, but no one does. She then goes to a sculpting studio to visit her old friend Dorothe, who is modelling nude for a class of sculptors. After the modelling session is over, Clo tells Dorothe that she couldn't pose nude because she would feel exposed, while Dorothe claims that her body makes her happy, not proud. Dorothe picks up a package for her friend Raoul who lent her his car to take it to the cinema where he's working. On the way, Clo tells Dorothe that she is waiting for a test result and afraid of being terminally ill. At the cinema, they watch a silent comedy film from the projection booth, starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. In the film, Karina topples over a hose pipe and dies, leaving behind a grieving Godard, but after he takes off his sunglasses, realising that it was only his dark glasses which made the events appear so gloomily, the scene repeats in a much lighter tone. Leaving the cinema, Clo accidentally breaks a mirror, which she claims is a bad omen. Together with Dorothe she passes the caf that she visited earlier, learning that a man was killed there. They enter a taxi, and Dorothe tells her that the broken mirror was meant for that man, not Clo.
After having dropped Dorothe off, Clo has the taxi driver take her to Parc Montsouris. In the park, Antoine, a soldier on leave from the Algerian War, addresses Clo and tells her that today is the longest day of the year. During their conversation, Clo tells him that her real name is Florence, and that she's afraid of her illness, while the sensitive Antoine reflects on the war, where people die for nothing, and that this scares him. He asks her to accompany him to the train station to return to the war if he accompanies her to the hospital to get her test results. At the hospital, the doctor whom Clo had her appointment with for her results has already left. While sitting on a bench outside, the doctor rolls by in his car and tells Clo that her condition is not too serious and that two months of radiotherapy will help her to get better. Clo says that her fear seems to be gone, and she seems happy. Antoine says that he hates to leave, and that he would like to be with Clo. She tells him that he is with her at this moment, and they smile at each other.
Cast
* Corinne Marchand as Florence "Clo"
* Jos Luis de Vilallonga as Jos, Clo's lover
* Loye Payen as Irma
* Dominique Davray as Angle
* Serge Korber as Maurice
* Dorothe Blanck as Dorothe
* Raymond Cauchetier as Raoul
* Michel Legrand as Bob
* Antoine Bourseiller as Antoine
* Robert Postec as Doctor Valineau
* Jean Champion as the caf owner
* Jean-Pierre Taste as the waiter at the caf
* Rene Duchateau as the seller of hats
* Lucienne Marchand as the taxi driver
Themes
While the film takes place in France, away from the Algerian front, the influence of the Algerian war for independence is still strong.
The war greatly affected France during the 1950s and 1960s, where the demands for decolonization were the strongest. The soldier who Clo meets towards the end of the film, Antoine, is on temporary leave from fighting in Algeria. Antoine also builds on the theme of existentialism that the film conveys, with his claims that the people in Algeria are dying for nothing. There are also protests on the street that Clo encounters while taking a taxi back to her home.
'Clo from 5 to 7' embodies the stereotypes that men subject women to and their oppressiveness. Clo commonly complains that no one takes her seriously since she's a woman, and that the men think that she's faking her illness for attention. She seems to go along with these stereotypes as well, as many women in France did, telling herself essentially that beauty is everything by saying "as long as I'm beautiful, I'm alive."
Beginning in the 1940s, the French intellectual scene was dominated by existentialism, a movement in philosophy that would greatly influence art in France well into the 1960s. 'Clo from 5 to 7' is largely an existential film, as for the entirety of the film, Clo struggles with her existence and the potential of facing her mortality. The impending results of her medical exam and the mere possibility that she may be diagnosed with cancer leaves Clo open to an existential mind where she is aware of her own mortality. Further, upon meeting Antoine, the soldier talks about the deaths of the Algerian War, and that they are dying for nothing and without a purpose, further appealing to the existential philosophy.
Critical reception
In 2019, 'Cleo from 5 to 7' was voted the second greatest film directed by a woman in a poll held by the BBC, questioning 368 film experts from 84 countries.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92%, based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "'Cleo from 5 to 7' represents a beautifully filmed highlight of the French New Wave that encapsulates the appeal of the era while departing from its narrative conventions."
References
Further reading
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