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| Saturday, February 28, 2009 |
| Cleo from 5 to 7.[1962] |
Cleo de 5 a 7 is a beautiful movie. Shot in real time, the camera romances with life as it sees it on the streets of Paris, in its quaint cafes, crowds,inside art studios, apartments and gardens flushed with the coming of summer. We follow Florence as she wanders through the city, never allowed to lose track of her, as she moves from preoccupation of death to promises of rebirth. The motif of journey becomes important from the outset through the three dimensions of time that life takes us through[ the past, the present and the future]. The motif is sustained as Florence drifts along in and out of cabs, through gauntlets, across lawns to finally reach the hospital. The inward spiritual journey becomes the refrain to the larger theme as she slowly transforms from a self obsessed, paranoid girl to someone who learns the simple art of being at peace with oneself.
Again self-obsession itself becomes a structure in the film. Florence walks out of the card reading session and reassures herself as she admires her own reflection-"As long as I'm beautiful, I'm alive." Mirrors resurface again and again, a tacit footnote to the concern for beauty that is only skin deep and also on a more subtle level the gaze that objectifies women. If built as a musical piece, this fixation on superficialities would reach a crescendo as Florence walks on the avenues and meets the probing or casual gaze of the pedestrians, the invisible gaze of her close friends and associates and also her own critical gaze that finds worth in beauty. The music would stop as soon as the mirror slips from Dorothee's purse and breaks symbolizing the end of vanity on one hand and the death or the transformation of her inner self on the other.
I could re-watch the film for the sheer beauty of its street shots which gives the viewer an immediacy, the wide angled view of the crossings taking in with clarity like an eye hungry for details, around bends or through moving cabs with a woman ascending stairs in the background, pausing a while for her to twirl around and wave and then moving ahead for the next destination.
The film leaves you though with the question about what Cleo does from 6.30 to 7.00. ever answered we wonder whether she went to see the soldier off or did the parting never take place.
Further articles to read-
Adrian Martin
Molly Haskell |
posted by C @ 10:18 AM  |
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