This time she still has short hair, but it’s blonde, reminiscent rather rather of Monica Vitti than Anna Karina. It seems women in are either exactly like Anna Karina or the exact opposite. This one is exact opposite even though her acting style is strangely similar; at the end of the day, these Nouvelle Vague girls didn’t really have to do anything else but look pretty and dance around a little.
“Cléo de 5 à 7” is a little more sophisticated than that though. The character talks a lot and with the backdrop of Godard’s Paris, this film looks like just one of the other Nouvelle Vagues, with the difference that Agnès Varda’s story is way more realistic. Even though she leads a life that is almost completely detached from ours, she behaves exactly like a shallow pop singer would, and through this experience of her life, slowly develops more mature feelings and thoughts. This evolution in just 2 hours is quite impressive, especially since it seems to come very naturally.
When the “Beaches of Agnès” came out, I decided that I wanted to see one of her films and know about her more before seeing it, and among all her movies, “Cleo” was the one that fascinated me the most. I like to see first movies of directors I like – whereas some are absolutely brilliant, such as “Les 400 Coups”, others are good beginning, like “Following”. Considering how amazingly great “À Bout de souffle” is, it is perhaps customary for Nouvelle Vague directors to start off very strong – Cleo follows a simple premise, but the execution surpasses anything I have expected. It is a lot like a “Vivre sa Vie” in how it portrays one single character, but does not show any of Godard’s symbolism; the most piquant similarity, both main characters watch a film at some point in the film, shows the difference very strongly: Whereas Godard’s version is a very symbol-laden, meaningful scene with many layers, Varda’s is an homage to comedic silent films, showing the love of life of Cleo’s comparably happy friends. Finally, the best part in the film is most definitely her encounter with the soldier (beautifully set in the Parc Montsouris) when she found in a stranger all these things she could not find within her friends.
Speaking of that soldier, Antoine Bourseriller looks like Joe E. Brown (Osgood) and the last shot of “Cleo” is strangely reminiscent of the last scene of “Some Like it Hot” – what irony. Ahaha.
I enjoyed the film, mostly because it incorporates almost every Nouvelle Vague element that I love so much. Before this film, I have never actually touched anything else besides Godard and Truffaut, and now I understand what I have missed out. After months of lack of French films, it is time to resume these efforts.