Cléo de 5 à 7

BFI Film Classics

by Steven Ungar

Cléo de 5 à 7, Agnes Varda’s classic work of 1962 depicts, in near real time, ninety minutes in the life of Cléo, a young woman in Paris awaiting the results of medical tests that she fears will confirm a fatal condition.  The film, whose visual beauty matches its evocation of early Fifth Republic Paris, was a major point of reference for the French New Wave despite the fact that Varda, the only major female French director of the period, never considered herself a member of the core Cahiers du Cinéma group of critics turned filmmakers. 

Ungar provides a close reading of the film and situates it in its social, political and cinematic context, tracing Varda’s early career as a student of art history and a photographer, the history of post-war French film, and the lengthy Algerian war to which Cléo’s health concerns and ambitions to become a pop singer make her more or less oblivious.  His study is the first to set a reading of Cléo’s formal and technical complexity alongside an analysis of its status as a document of a specific historical moment.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2008

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

CLÉO DE 5 À 7 is a favorite film of mine. I never get tired of it. For the lover of this film, this book is good. The interesting parts are the beginning, where the author writes about Agnes Varda, and her earlier films, and the last part of the book, where one gets some analysis of the film. It is not essential read, but a nice book to have in company of this great film.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must be approaching 20 or so books read in this BFI Series and I think this is one of the best. My opinion is surely colored by the fact that it covers a favorite movie by one of my favorite directors. Still, the descriptions and analysis strike me as exemplary and the style is free of academic cant. Full marks.

[Frances Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best critical theory book I've read since my MA. A true journey through Varda's life, spaces, and sounds

[Andrew Child]

my main takeaway is that i need to learn french to get all the nuance i can from this movie

[Jack Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a short textbook. Pretty hard to get invested but it’s talking about an all timer movie and artist soooooo

[christian jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

learned a lot about Angès Varda's early life and career. interweaving the themes of the film with her own life and creative inspo was def the strength of the piece.

[Eliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the chapter by chapter reading of the film while bookending Varda’s early experiences to the analysis. Felt real smart having already read the articles mentioned.