FILM: CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
1962, dir. Agnès Varda

Director Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties in her first feature film, Cleo From 5 to 7, a real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, the film is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. The film glitters with photographic and cinematic style thanks to Varda’s camera work, and the film is rightfully recognized today as a pillar of French New Wave cinema.