alice liddell Review of Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

One of cinema's greatest forgotten treasures (possible spoiler)

[10/10 · 20 December 1999]

One of the most remarkable documents from cinema's Renaissance, the French New Wave, criminally unsung, probably because it's by a woman. On paper the film seems schematic - in the first half a popular singer fears she has cancer, but tries to continue her flippant lifestyle; in the second, she realises the shallowness of her life, rejects frippery, and begins to look at the world properly. But as a viewing experience, we are given unprecedented access into the emotional workings of a heroine's mind. The film is a mixture of the spontaneous (the lingering wading through the Paris streets, its cafes, crowds, cinemas, street theatres etc.), formal elegance (the extraordinarily complex Ophulsian camerawork, best seen when Cleo visits the hat shop; the play with mirrors and frames) and an Expressionist sensibility (much of what Cleo sees is not 'realistic' observation, but highly coloured by her experiences. The ending is surprisingly bracing considering its open-ended shadow of death.