Cléo From 5 to 7

Written & Directed by Agnes Varda (1962), French with English subtitles, 90 mins, NR

Following her 1955 debut feature La Pointe Courte and several short films, Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a pop singer’s sudden confrontation with cancer, starring Corinne Marchand and featuring a wonderful cameo from the late Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), who also composed the film’s score, and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. Both a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama and a substantive take on the female psyche, Cléo from 5 to 7 is one of the cornerstones of the French New Wave, enduring for its intelligent perspective on the strong, unpredictable emotions that arise when facing one’s mortality.