Cleo seems subject (even victim) to sort of a mixed bag of beliefs in the short period of time conveyed in the film. The superstitions served a dual purpose -- sort of tormenting Cleo for not having any consistent convictions or a philosophy to guide her through a crisis, and offering viewers a series of visual and audial cues to her troubled frame of mind. She didn't have to say she was superstitious; she could preen in the cab while her song played on the radio, then lose her spirit as she watches a series of macabre masks flash by. No dialogue necessary.
Where do these beliefs fit in? To an extent, Cleo emancipates herself from them, undergoes a sort of existential healing period in the park, then either stays in that state of frame of mind or reaches next for rationalism when the doctor gives her an optimistic (?) outlook. I know existentialism is supposed to be a theme of these films. What was Varda trying to say here?
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It seemed like the natural setting of the park was important — like sort of a back-to-basics pullback from the absurdity her life had become (ridiculous wigs and hats and shallow people and ornate superstitions and things and stuff). Then she finds herself in this peaceful setting that is the closest thing to Nature a big city can offer, and she meets the furthest thing from the glamorous types she's used to: a common soldier, who later plucks a flower from the moving bus, and she regards it like she's never even considered the simple beauty of a flower before.
I don't know. I think the superstitions may have been just a layer of crap in her life that in the end she discards, like her wig, for the real magic of simple life.
How are the African masks she gazes at that different from the parade of actual faces she beholds with such wonder?
"How are the African masks she gazes at that different from the parade of actual faces she beholds with such wonder?"
Gosh, that's a great point. The masks are as vacuous and meaningless as her anonymous admirers. They also remind me of the cruel-looking masks from a Greek tragedy.
The masks jumped out at her because she was thinking so negatively -- looking for bad omens. Perhaps the opposite was going on with the faces -- was she looking for hope?
I have trouble knowing what other people think about superstitions, because I'm so anti-superstition. I'm guessing the average person doesn't feel as strongly about that as I do. But, then again, I'm sometimes able to suspend that for a book or movie.
As DW said in an earlier thread, we expected the superstitions to be true -- it's a convention -- I was sure she had terminal belly cancer.
And there was so much superstition in her life. As I said in another thread, I wonder if she'll be able to escape that.
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