History Film / CleoFrom5To7

Florence Victoire a.k.a. Cleo is a young singer whose career has recently taken off. She has just been told she might have cancer and is anxiously awaiting her biopsy results, which she will get at 7 PM. She visits a FortuneTeller, whose tarot reading increases her fears rather than reassuring her. She then goes to a café with her maid, and then to her luxurious apartment where she receives the visit of her lover, a wealthy older man, and later of her two songwriters. She goes back out and picks up her friend, who works as a nude model in a sculpture workshop. They go to a cinema where they watch a short silent film from the projectionist's room. After they part, she goes to Parc Montsouris, where she's chatted up by a talkative but pleasantly earnest soldier whose leave is about to end. He accompanies her to the hospital where she picks up her inconclusive biopsy results. And that's it.

''Cleo from 5 to 7'' is one of the first films by Creator/AgnesVarda, a UsefulNotes/NouvelleVague director. It depicts two hours in the life of a woman wandering throughout Paris on June 22, 1961.

* NiceHat: Cleo tries on some fashionable hats at the store.
* NoPlotNoProblem: The whole plot is basically just 2 hours in the life of a young singer waiting for medical test results.

* ShowWithinTheShow: The movie within the movie, an odd little silent film that Cleo and her friend watch that is done InUniverse in a {{Retraux}} 1920s style.

* BittersweetEnding: The story ends with the doctor prescribing two months of radiation, and Cleo declares that for the first time she doesn't feel afraid.

* TheCameo: Jean-Luc Godard (in a rare appearance without his trademark sunglasses), a friend of Varda's, and Anna Karina appear in the silent film sequence.

-> "As long as I'm beautiful, I'm even more alive than the others."

* RealTime: In theory, at least: The film is called ''Cléo from 5 to 7'', and it follows Cleo over about 100 minutes, as the exact time stamps on the chapters show. But the plausibility of real time is stretched on occasion, like in the scene where she's rehearing her song, and she takes about two seconds to change from a white nightie into a black dress.

* ShowWithinTheShow: The movie within the movie.
* ShoutOut: The silent movie is a reference to the films of Creator/BusterKeaton. A poster for the surrealist classic ''Film/UnChienAndalou'' is also visible in the background at one point.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cleo.jpg]]

* SliceOfLife

* BittersweetEnding: The story ends abruptly without a dramatic resolution, leaving Cleo's fate an open question.

[[quoteright:348:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cleo.jpg]]

''Cleo from 5 to 7'' is one of the first films by Creator/AgnesVarda, a Nouvelle Vague director. It depicts two hours in the life of a woman wandering throughout Paris on June 22, 1961.

'''''Cleo from 5 to 7''''' is one of the first films by Creator/AgnesVarda, a Nouvelle Vague director. It depicts two hours in the life of a woman wandering throughout Paris on June 22, 1961.

** Actually, if one wishes to nitpick, the story ends before the two hours are up, which may be meaningful in itself. See FridgeBrilliance below.

'''''Cleo from 5 to 7''''' is one of the first films by Agnes Varda, a Nouvelle Vague director. It depicts two hours in the life of a woman wandering throughout Paris on June 22, 1961.

The film develops several themes: the fear of death, the possibility of living a meaningful life, the relations between human beings, the perception of women. But it is also a quasi-documentary depiction of Paris in the early 1960s.

* GayParee: Displayed in a naturalistic way. To quote the ''Slant'' review again: "Varda captures the fairy-tale essence of early '60s Paris with a vivacity and richness that rivals Godard's ''Breathless''."

* OutOfGenreExperience: The naturalistic SliceOfLife narrative is interspersed in its middle part by a song number.

* ShoutOut: The silent movie is a reference to the films of Buster Keaton. A poster for the surrealist classic ''Film/UnChienAndalou'' is also visible in the background at one point.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: There's Cleo, and we're going to be in her company from 5 to 7 p.m.

* ShoutOut: The silent movie is a reference to the films of Buster Keaton. A poster for the surrealist classic ''UnChienAndalou'' is also visible in the background at one point.