In "Cléo from 5 to 7," director Agnès Vardas spins what first appears to be a straightforward story about a vain young singer awaiting results of cancer biopsy into the most magnificent character study I've ever viewed. The film reflects such a profound transformation of a human being, and in doing so it surpasses the challenge of not only making the audience believe in Cléo/Florence's springboard to maturity, but it makes it seem plausible that a person can blossom from life-changing events in the mere two hours in which the story is allegedly set. The writing, directing and acting collectively contributed to a reverse Cinderella story that, despite the verdict she's been waiting for, leaves Cléo and the audience with what feels like a substantive ending and a new beginning.
6 comments:
Perhaps this should be a separate thread for the ending, but what do you think of her being told that nothing serious was wrong after all?
The tarot cards at the start—cleverly in color—did a nice job of setting up Cleo’s situation: her life is run by superstitions and we think that she has cancer because we expect superstitions to work in movies. But superstitions are useless in life and so Vargas breaks the movie convention. I liked this aspect of it. Cleo, after all, ends up wearing her new hat on a Tuesday.
But the ending seemed to have less weight as a result. I think I would have rather ended the film when Cleo and Antoine are on the bus. Or better yet, when they are talking in the courtyard after learning that the doctor has already left.
I think this is a good thread to talk about the ending -- how superstitions fit in, I think that's another twist to the picture.
An unresolved ending would have been better, wouldn't it? Cleo could have still reached the same conclusion -- happiness, peace of mind -- without the results. It might have been a more powerful state of mind without the diagnosis. And in the few New Wave films I've seen, the ending was ambiguous -- maybe to revolt against giving audiences the "happy" or at least conclusive ending that more traditional storytelling calls for in a film.
Wasn't it interesting that only the first scene was filmed in color, and only when the camera focused on the women's hands and the cards? And even in that scene, it cut to black and white to capture their faces, and never returned again to color. I'd like to find an explanation behind that.
More on the ending:
The fortune-teller says Cleo will die. The doctor says she will live. The fortune-teller, however, accurately predicted her life up until that day (an effective way to relay a lot of exposition in a matter of minutes), so whose answer do we accept? I didn't take the doctor's diagnosis to heart -- he was confirming that something was wrong with her but was optimistic about treatment (two months or so) rather than telling her that her test results were negative.
The literal answer to the diagnosis isn't important, but I would have liked the right cue to interpret her reaction in terms of whether she felt she would live or die. Was she expressing peace and acceptance (I am ill, I will die someday -- perhaps sooner than later) or peace and relief (I have much time ahead of me).
I'm probably overanalyzing this. Maybe the movie should have just ended before her diagnosis.
I think the diagnosis left some room for interpretation, as you suggested, cl. Maybe it was nothing very serious, after all, or maybe the dashing doctor was just in a hurry and was delivering news in an overly optimistic way so as not to invite further discussion at that moment. Maybe when she goes to see him next, he will say that things aren't as rosy as he first thought. I think it's ambiguous, but no so undetermined as for the viewer to feel cheated (which, I confess, I would have if she had never gotten word from the doctor).
It seemed to me that we were supposed to believe the doctor. I can't put my finger on why, but that's how I felt.
Thus, I agree with DW that the movie broke the superstition convention.
But I agree with KC that I would have felt cheated without a diagnosis. And I would have thought she was dying. And I would have believed the superstitions had proven true.
I'm with CL on the color -- I'd like to see an explanation. DW, you called it clever -- do you know what it meant?
The diagnosis was strange. In my mind, two months of treatment is no small thing. I tend to think she did have cancer, but the doctor was trying to make it as rosy as possible, especially since he was in a hurry.
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