Cleo. The woman who is in practically every scene, whether in front of the camera, nervous and flighty, or behind it as it seems to follow her and allow us to know how the world affects her internally.
Agnes Varda is the woman behind Cleo, the one who brings us a unique vision of a woman in suspended animation waiting for her medical diagnosis (and subsequent fate). In 90 minutes of real time, she introduces us, first in color (to specify an incident which will preside over all that follows), then in smooth black and white, to the world of this young woman (played by Corinne Marchand) who by the threat of possible death in the future slowly begins a road to a certain self-discovery which will leave her changed at the end.
As a matter of fact, Death, one of the cards in the Tarot, features largely throughout without actually coming forth menacingly, but staying quietly, unnoticed, in the background. While everything surrounding Cleo teems of life -- her own apartment, the streets and cafés of Paris -- she in turn seems to be living under the shadow of her own death and superstitions (fed by Angele) and goes from emotional to emotion as if she were to cease to exist at any moment. It is only once she leaves her own confining place and takes to the street that she begins to evolve, and Death seems less and less the threat and more the Thing to conquer. Characters like Dorothee and Antoine only reinforce this in their appearances -- Dorothee by telling her she doesn't believe in superstitions (therefore disproving the psychic's dire predictions at the beginning of the story), Antoine by reinforcing Cleo that since her actual name is Florence, she is Summer, and therefore, Life.
Agnes Varda is the woman behind Cleo, the one who brings us a unique vision of a woman in suspended animation waiting for her medical diagnosis (and subsequent fate). In 90 minutes of real time, she introduces us, first in color (to specify an incident which will preside over all that follows), then in smooth black and white, to the world of this young woman (played by Corinne Marchand) who by the threat of possible death in the future slowly begins a road to a certain self-discovery which will leave her changed at the end.
As a matter of fact, Death, one of the cards in the Tarot, features largely throughout without actually coming forth menacingly, but staying quietly, unnoticed, in the background. While everything surrounding Cleo teems of life -- her own apartment, the streets and cafés of Paris -- she in turn seems to be living under the shadow of her own death and superstitions (fed by Angele) and goes from emotional to emotion as if she were to cease to exist at any moment. It is only once she leaves her own confining place and takes to the street that she begins to evolve, and Death seems less and less the threat and more the Thing to conquer. Characters like Dorothee and Antoine only reinforce this in their appearances -- Dorothee by telling her she doesn't believe in superstitions (therefore disproving the psychic's dire predictions at the beginning of the story), Antoine by reinforcing Cleo that since her actual name is Florence, she is Summer, and therefore, Life.