Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo de 5 à 7

Dir. Agnès Varda, 1962, 89 min

With Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray

In French with English subtitles

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Richard Peña, series curator: “As an actress anxiously awaits the results of a medical exam, her anxiety propels her into a number of chance encounters that bring her across the city, finally ending in a magical scene in Parc Montsouris. The delicious lightness of Agnès Varda’s camera weaves the sights and sounds of Paris into the very texture of the film.”

“A brilliant, pioneering film” – The Guardian