Let me preface this by saying I don't think the director intentionally sought to turn Cleo into the heroine of a parable, but I thought her story had parallels to Buddha. She leaves a pampered and satiating environment and chooses to face her crisis out in the world. She sheds her wig, much like the Buddha shaved off his hair. She's facing the loss of beauty and youth and accepting her own mortality.
It was a neat perspective to the movie.
4 comments:
Ok, just to throw a spanner in the works, what about this contrarian scenario:
We are led to believe that Cleo has had a shallow and uncommitted life. For instance, having just found success as a pop singer, she is impatient with her career being both annoyed that the people in the cafe were not paying attention to her song and also having no idea what music she would want to record next. Likewise she has been unable to give the boot to a lover who cares so little for her that he barely gives her five minutes of his time. So while brooding about her probably serious disease, she meets a cute young toyboy who is all the more romantic for being a soldier off to battle (even if he is just to fight in a nasty little war of colonial oppression). Once he ships out, the fling will be quickly forgotten as Cleo moves on to some other diversion.
Do we have reason to believe that this is not Cleo’s arc?
I want CL's take to be right, but DW's is more realistic. But do we have to look at a film realistically?
I'd like to think that she will be completely different from now on. Perhaps she will become a cab driver, contented and fearless.
I think Cleo and the soldier acknowledged that this wouldn't amount to anything of substance -- he said he wanted her photo lest her forget her; she asked for his address for the same reason.
But as far as her arc goes, I think she underwent a serious change. We saw her try to self-nurture with different shallow ploys (Let's buy a hat! Play my song!), but she found them lacking. When she really needed support, she found it wanting in the major players of her life. (A tendency to cry wolf no doubt was part of that.) I think things changed for her. I don't see her becoming a fearless cab driver, but I think she matured in the span of two hours.
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