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ornamental line

Beauty Unseen

"My glasses made everything so dark!"
Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)


Points for Reflection

Agnes Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

  1. what surprising choices do the filmmakers make when framing and editing this film?
  2. which scenes shot outdoor seem to employ paid extras, and which seem to make documentary-like use of those walking about the street with no knowledge that they’re being filmed?
  3. why might Varda repeat a closeup of Cléo three times as she descends Madame Irma’s stairs?
  4. Cléo is a musician, finely attuned to sound.  How does Varda shape the soundscape Cléo inhabits?
  5. why might only the opening appear in color?
  6. what features does the Tarot card symbolizing Cléo share with the actual woman herself?
  7. how accurate does the first Tarot reading later appear to have been?
  8. during her second tarot reading, Irma tells Cléo that the skeleton card does not indicate death, necessarily, but suggests “a complete transformation of your being.”  Has Cléo undergone such a transformation by the time the film ends?
  9. at what point does the camera first assume the first-person p.o.v. of Cléo herself?
  10. how many characters discourage Cléo from expressing her feelings?
  11. which characters consider Cléo melodramatic?  Do you agree with their conclusion?
  12. is the audience supposed to agree with those characters who believe Cléo to be childish?
  13. why might every section of the film have a chapter heading which indicates the time span presumably covered in that sequence except for the opening scene?
  14. the chapter titles do not always appear right when a scene changes.  Is there some other logic behind their appearance?

Chapitre I / 17 h 05 à 17 h 08

  1. what role does her own appearance play in Cléo’s identity, and in her relations with others?
  2. in what situations do men orient towards Cléo?

Chapitre II / ANGÈLE de 17 h. 08 à 17 h. 13

  1. is there a moral behind the tale Angèle narrates to the café owner?
  2. what kind of commentary on romantic relations is supplied by the conversation between the lovers seated behind Cléo in the bar?
  3. does Cléo appear to appreciate all the attention she receives from men?

Chapitre III / CLÉO de 17 h. 13 à 17 h. 18

  1. how often does Cléo look in mirrors, and why?
  2. in what scenes does Varda employ soft focus, instead of tack sharp focus, of Clèo?  Why might Varda allow this so often?
  3. how does the hat Cléo purchases differ from the others she tries?
  4. at what moments does Cléo look at her reflection?
  5. in what scenes do mirrors double or triple Cléo’s image without her noticing?
  6. why do the wooden tribal masks in two separate shop windows lower Cléo’s spirits?
  7. how do the artists on the street differ from those in the studio?

Chapitre IV / ANGÈLE de 17 h. 18 à 17 h. 25

  1. does the combination of news reports and advertisements heard during the first taxi drive, with female driver, provide extraneous, irrelevant information, or do the topics they raise have any bearing on the film’s plot?
  2. why didn’t Cléo like the female taxi driver?
  3. what does the arrangement of Cléo’s flat tell us about her?

Chapitre V / CLÉO de 17 h. 25 à 17 h. 31

  1. why does Cléo change what she’s wearing two different times?
  2. does José behave during his visit like the “good lover” Angèle later labels him?
  3. does Angèle empower Cléo or infantilize her? Does she encourage healthy habits of thought?

Chapitre VI / BOB de 17 h. 31 à 17 h. 38

  1. are Cléo’s musician friends correct in assuming that “Cléo enjoys a good joke?”
  2. do the musicians perpetuate Cléo’s conclusions about the value of her appearance?

Chapitre VII / CLÉO de 17 h. 38 à 17 h. 45

  1. do the lyrics of “Sans Toi” echo Cléo’s own life experience in any way?
  2. why does Cléo conclude “Sans Toi” (Without You), written by the director Agnes Varda, by observing “It’s too much! It’s horrible!" How does the pianist, Michel Legrand, react?

Chapitre VIII / QUELQUES AUTRES de 17 h. 45 à 17 h. 52 / Restaurant & Streets

  1. how do the café patrons react to Cléo’s song when she puts it on the jukebox and walks about in dark sunglasses to catch their reactions?
  2. do any of those at the café represent things for which Cléo longs?
  3. what commentary on modern art do the patrons in the café provide?
  4. how does Cléo respond to the street performers she sees?
  5. as Cléo leaves the café, she imagines a number of people who looked at her throughout the day.  Whom does she include in this recollection?

Chapitre IX / DOROTHÉE de 17 h. 52 à 18 h.

  1. are the various clay sculptures in the studio recognizably gendered?
  2. are all the studio sculptors facing towards the nude model they’re rendering?
  3. why does Cléo say she could never model nude, unlike her friend Dorothée?
  4. what do Dorothée’s observations about Cléo reveal about our hero?
  5. how does the pacing and tenor of the music Cléo has recorded so far--and that of the initial songs suggested by her two musical friends--differ from “Sans Toi,” which she sings in its entirety?
  6. what does Cléo reveal to Dorothée about the nature of her intimacy with José?
  7. what does Cléo do while waiting in the car for Dorothée to return?
  8. how might Varda have captured such a long, sustained high angle shot of the women as they set off on a relaxed drive? Why might she choose this moment to capture in this challenging way?
  9. what is the lighting like when Cléo speaks openly about the seriousness of her illness to Dorothée?
  10. why is Cléo glad the problem lies in her abdomen?

Chapitre X / RAOUL de 18 h. à 18 h. 04

  1. what commentary on love and death does the short film, viewed by Cléo and Dorothée at the movie house, provide?
  2. is the audience’s emotional response to the short film supposed to echo that of the three characters who view it?

Chapitre XI / CLÉO de 18 h. 04 à 18 h. 12

  1. is Cléo as superstitious as Angèle?
  2. how does Varda use the musical score to shape the events of chapter eleven?
  3. walking down some stairs in the park, Cléo begins singing aloud and twisting her body as she goes, then stops abruptly.  Why?
  4. does the man who approaches Cléo in the park interact with her like other men have?

Chapitre XII / ANTOINE de 18 h. 12 à 18 h. 15

  1. how does the framing change once Cléo is with Antoine?sdf
  2. how does Antoine’s behavior set him apart?
  3. how does Cléo respond to Antoine’s generalizations about female sexuality?

Chapitre XIII / CLÉO et ANTOINE de 18 h. 15 à 18 h. 30

  1. is Antoine a different kind of man than the others we’ve met thus far, or is he cut from the same cloth?
  2. is Cléo’s and Antoine’s conversation about nudity flirtatious, or something deeper?
  3. how does Cléo receive the news given her in the film’s close?  Why?


Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
one sheet

 



Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu