Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Cléo from 5 to 7 (French: Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962) Slice of life New Wave, Tarot cards filmed in color, Magic, myth, and spells, Then two hours of real life, But in black and white. We follow spoiled Cleo, On real Paris streets. As she meets her friend and maid, Finds a nice new hat, Practices her notes and songs, Sees her kind boyfriend, Free-spirited Dorothee, Who imbues logic Into her superstitions. Director Varda Smartly adds great silent short, Famous cameos, Godard, Karina, Frey, more. Like Godard in short, Cleo removes sunglasses When she meets Antoine. She grows up, no longer scared Despite cancer's threat. With existentialist theme, From fate to power, From paranoid to content, Undramatic film That is not unexciting. Unpretentious art That unveils beauty slowly, Deftly winning us over. Choka (long poem) is an epic storytelling form of poetry from the Waka period, an unrhymed poem with the 5-7-5-7-5-7-5-7...7 syllable format (any odd number line length with alternating five and seven syllable lines that ends with an extra seven syllable line). #Choka #PoemReview

A beautiful blonde walks down the street. Everyone stares. As Cléo walks through the busy streets of Paris, everyone goes about their day but not without admiring her gorgeous appearance. Her appearance, is so attractive that everyone, even women stare, or is it that the public stares for another reason? Cléo's beauty unmatched through the film suggests a theme of vanity and superficial obsession in which the main character chooses to hide behind, she states "Ugliness is a kind of death... As long as I'm beautiful, I'm alive more than others."Cléo from 5 to 7 was directed and written by Agnès Varda, one of the few women writer and directors of her time. The main actors include a famous singer named Cléo, her guardian or maid Angela and there is a brief appearance of the following characters; Antoine, Dorothée, Bob and her lover. The film was released in April, 1962 and has an average rating of 7.9 out of 10 stars which exemplifies a decent film. The film is based on the Cléo's painful two hour wait for the result of a biopsy that will determine whether she has cancer or not. Although clearly in turmoil, Cléo proves to be quite the selfish and vain character. Treating her maid Angela with little to no respect and expecting everyone around her to love her and shower her with attention. Ironically, when she walks the streets, she seems to feel uncomfortable from everyone starting at her and giving her attention. The two hours of waiting time prove agonizing for her as the thought of having a terminal illness crushes her spirits of a healthy and beautiful life. As she walks the streets she is dressed in black as if already mourning her own death. According to Cléo, "your beauty is your health." Yet the character changes through the progression of the film as she later realizes that there is also "beauty in imperfections." One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Cléo is swinging in her apartment as pair of wings hang on her wall and align perfectly when she is at the highest point of her swing and Angela rocks in her char. This scene proves the child like characteristics of Cléo and the motherly traits that are shown by Angela. The swinging and the rocking set up a perfect paradox between the life of a young lady and the life of an older woman. The music was also beautiful. The song performed in her apartment was a very emotional love song. It seemed like a perfect song for her situation. I recommend this movie, especially to fans of musicals. This movie is geared towards adults since it contains many themes that are not clearly pointed out in the film. I liked the movie because of its theme of the fear of death, which is something that most of us can relate to. I also enjoyed the movie because of the way that it was shot. Some of the scenes make you feel the anxiety that Cléo must have felt throughout the two hours.

Here is the story of a beautiful French singer in the unenviable position of needing to wait two hours until learning the results of a dire medical test.I was reminded of the classic short story "The Lady or the Tiger" as I spent the time with her, wondering whether she would live or have to face her demise.This film is refreshingly improvisational as we wend our way through Paris as Cleo (Corinne Marchand) visits a tarot-card reader, a café, her own apartment in which she rehearses a song with a pianist played by "Parapluies de Cherbourg" composer Michel Legrand, an art studio where her friend poses nude, and, finally, a park in which she converses with a soldier on leave from Algeria (Antoine Bourseiller).Marchand is gorgeous here, wearing everything well, from her sexy dress or housecoat to her wig or triangular fur hat. The camera adores her. Rich and gifted, she is also impoverished because her lover (a suave Jose Luis de Vilallonga) speaks lovingly yet will not truly give of himself. And, of course, she is potentially facing a very premature death.Cleo demonstrates bravery as she passes the time, occasionally navel-gazing, growing maudlin, and even boring us a little. (Who among us wouldn't do the same in a similar situation?) Cleo's repartee with Antoine as the film draws to its close is endearing and compelling. One even wishes that the drama could have started with the pair, but that would have been a different film.Truman Capote is credited here with writing the dialog, and I wonder whether he did so in the original French. If so, I'm impressed.In all, this was a powerful experience.

This is the first film of Agnes Varda's that I saw. Cleo from 5 to 7 follows a self-absorbed woman as she waits to find out the results from a biopsy. I loved how Agnes Varda shot this in "real time". The viewer follows Cleo as she goes along her day and we are not taken on this Hollywood whirlwind of weeks and months smashed together into a couple of hours. I think the message of the film was well portrayed. Basically, life is a gift. Enjoy it while you can because it sure as heck does not last long enough! Cleo does not look on the bright side of things and I think this makes the viewer do the opposite. Watching someone sulk and knowing how he or she should act is an interesting viewpoint in this film. Now, I have only skimmed the surface of French Cinema but so far I like what I see. We read a book about this film for my film history class and if I remember correctly, they only opted to use color in the fortuneteller scene because they only had enough money to do that scene. I could be wrong but, I just thought that was an interesting piece of trivia. The woman who plays Cleo is gorgeous and I think this offers a really neat contrast of her beauty with looming sickness or "ugliness" as she calls it. In conclusion, I really enjoyed Agnes Varda's "Nouvelle Vague' style. I love how she places the viewer into another woman's world for an hour and a half. I love how her message is a positive one and I think I am also starting to love French cinema.