Cléo de 5 a 7 Revision Notes PDF

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Revision notes covering the themes, motifs, context and critical readings of Agnes Varda's Cléo de 5 a 7....

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CLÉO DE 5 À 7 

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Context Agnes Varda, 1962

Interest in embodiment/personal identity Swinging 60s (French cool, Serge Gainsbourg) Context: Nouvelle Vague Dominant Fr cinematic movement of 60s Influence on 70s US cinemas, phrase coined in 1957 It’s a tendency more than movement What links those associated = resistance to dominant Fr cinema of the day and trends coming out of Hollywood = refining film and cinematic concerns, rejection of existing tendencies in FR and US 2 wings: Cahier du cinema group and Left bank group. All strong concern to promote very French (national) form of cinema Agnes Varda retrospectively considered part of it Jean-Luc Goddard etc. in Cahier du cinema group, Varda Left bank of Seine group) Cleo one of her early works Interesting = way Varda introduces a gendered subject position into cinema There’s a sense that cinema had developed w/ a masculine gaze/structured around it. She’s reacting against this dominant trend Notion each person constructed through encounters with other people, we have no self-identity without it being mediated through others (presences, social identities) Context: Existentialism

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Martin Heidegger, 1927 book Being and Time, influential in Fr. What defines us as human beings = our finitude, the temporality of it, moving towards death. = we forget that by having public idea of death. = we become not whole/non authentic by not confronting our finitude. = We never really confront the idea of our own death. = Means we flee from it, riddled from anxiety about it = We conceal it in hospice/hospitals, veiled behind closed walls = We alienate ourselves

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Heidegger’s staring death in the face = has a certain virile tonality, and also explicitly in Camus Usually men who triumph over death in virile way. Response to pathos of virility running through existentialism = feminism Beauvoir is the cure for the virility of finitude. Le Deuxième sexe ‘on ne nait pas femme: on le devient. No essence of femininity, it is constructed by the social world we live in.

Context: Decolonisation     

Year of the Evian Accords: ended the 1954–1962 Algerian War with a formal ceasefire proclaimed for 19 March, and formalized the idea of cooperative exchange between the two countries Before then, Algerian war raging Antoine as male alienated subject. Initially without uniform, puts it on Issue of authenticity, becoming new subject in relation to a social field which alienates you.

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Plot summary

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2 hr period waiting for cancer diagnosis: her anguish, anxiety of death and losing physical beauty Constant signs of possible imminent death Film plays off clock time against subjective time of lived experience/subjective duration Documents a move from self-obsession and fear to self-discovery/discovery of world around her From anguish about mortality to acceptance Also becomes a dif kind of person: not just an object of others = gazes looking past each other at end (Antoine and Cleo) but intimacy = has a new form of understanding of herself

Journey from masquerade/non-identity to subjectivity

Journey forshadowed in 1st scene : “une transformation profonde de tout [son] être” Moral growth: begins unable to accept her veritable identity : identifies only with her own physical appearance : masking and hiding herself behind a façade of beauty : obsessed and overcome with her mortality/the notion of her illness/potential death.

Move to self-acceptance: second half portrays Cléo’s overcoming of this lack of identity : newly discovered ability to assert herself and her opinion, : newfound interest in surroundings/others NOT own superficial image. So journey, as 2 halves/gradual change from thereon: rehearsal scene as pivotal moment : after which begins to accept her illness : + to move from object to subject Non identity: obsession w/ self image  

This narcissism divests her of any personality: the viewer associates her mostly with her appearance Use of mirrors: which appear constantly throughout the first half of Cléo : cafes, shop window panes, within the shops themselves : 1st time when leaves tarot card reader’s salon Steven Ungar = “multiply her reflection into an infinite regress.” : a cinematographic mise-en-abyme provides infinite images of Cléo’s reflection : exacerbates the artificiality/non-identity which her self-obsession leads to : These infinite Cléos are nothing but reflections - not the woman herself : mirrors as reassurance that her illness has not yet disfigured what she holds most dear: a her beauty :“être laide c’est ça la mort” = gives herself one more reason to hold on - her situ could always be worse as she not ugly : positioning, just before Cléo steps out onto the streets of Paris = last act of preparation before facing outside world needs happy thought for composure

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Non-identity: objectified through motif of the gaze Others also scrutinise her appearance: passers-by and the viewer Passes strangers on street/tarot card reader’s waiting room = explicitly turn heads to gaze at her = a passive object, to be looked upon = not an active person doing the gazing I.e. down rue de Rivoli after tarot card reader = tracking shot, follows smoothly alongside = sense being filmed from road, spied on from moving car = persists even been obscured by market stall/passer-by = creepy sense of invasion and desperation Varda, Le Monde = "Dans la première partie, elle est regardée, tout le monde l’admire".

No identity : largely defined by appearance, looks in mirrors and gazed at : fascination w/ mirrors is just an extension of gaze as, as a woman, shall be objectified and a a a perceived as a canvas for beauty to be painted onto as soon as enters public sphere : turns her into inanimate object, a tool for men’s visual pleasure = only exterior qualities matter

Masquerade: preoccupation with illness takes up all thoughts, obscures personality 

First moment her face shown: interrupts Madame Irma’s “Vous êtes malade?” : bluntly replies “Oui.” : sudden reply w/ sudden close up shot of Cléo’s face = suffocating, panic/distress as smth foreign invades worshipped body

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Motif of time: clock ticking in background of tarot card reading, film’s title, 13 subtitles : finiteness of title and ticking = countdown to signif. event = urgency, panic = her emotional state as she waits : randomness of subtitles, “Cléo de 17h.05 à 17h.08” = chaos/lack of structure/X round numbers reflects inner struggle to remain calm

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Signs of imminent death : the storefront of ‘Rivoli Deuil’ behind when crosses street w/ A : when on swing, a pair of decorative angel wings on the wall behind her = evoke the image of Cléo passing away and transcending to heaven.

Masquerade in retrospect: a façade to her identity 

sports a wig and a false name : to gain the sense of power/nobility of Egyptian Pharaoh, Cleopatra. A : men aptly seduced, Bob and Jose refer to her as “Cléopatre”. : wig to enhance her beauty : intent on building herself a more attractive and powerful identity. Subjectivity: pivotal rehearsal scene

Jill Forbes cites Flitterman-Lewis: the pivotal moment in Cléo’s evolution from “woman-as-spectacle to woman-as-social-being”  

situated at around half way through the film Cléo’s actions and words show stark contrast with those exhibited before this point

Alison Smith: by singing ‘Sans toi’ Cléo begins to “[see] herself as a spectacle” : the black backdrop is reminiscent of an actual stage performance : realises insufficiency of her current self-definition : ready to strive to become more than puppet to Bob, a “poupee” as she says 

“C’est moi qui pars” “Je fais ce qui me plaît” = first person pronouns emphasises Cléo’s attempt to be authoritative and to assert herself

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Pulls the black curtain fully across the screen when changing clothes = for a moment the viewer sees nothing but a black screen = hints that this is a critical moment of change/Cléo shall emerge different

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Cléo’s clothes = black gives off a more sophisticated/mature air, coinciding with Cleo’s moral growth.

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Removal of her wig = the beginning of the breakdown of the façade built up to conceal her true self. Forbes: “gets rid of her ‘disguise’”

Subjectivity: also a more gradual change which continues advancing after this scene (subjectivity as opinions/interests are something concrete to associate her with) Varda, Le Monde: once steps out onto streets “elle commence à regarder” = transition from looked upon to looking herself

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Her social interactions are true debates Alison Smith: “her meetings with Dorothée and Antoine contain a genuine exchange” = Dorothée, “Vraiment ça ne te gêne pas de poser?”, curiosity “j’aurais peur qu’on trouve un défaut” = Antoine, “Pour moi la nudité c’est l’indiscretion. C’est la nuit et puis… la maladie" = although aversion = not fully accepting of natural body/conforms to preconceived beauty = at least more frank about struggles/fears = Antoine, "cette enorme peur de mourir” = a change from the way in which the viewer silently sensed Cléo’s panic and unease w/ omens

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Glances shared between Cleo and Antoine = last moments, gaze at each other at same time = almost eye level = sense of equality/mutual attention and care = contrast w/ object-subject hierarchy

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Attention to surroundings by sight = appropriates the gaze = filmed from her POV/through her eyes = we witness HER observations: man swallowing frogs on the street or the couples in the Café du Dôme

“Depuis toujours je pense que tout le monde me regarde et moi je ne regarde personne que moi"

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Attention to surroundings audibly = snatches of conversation in Café du Dome = her song on the jukebox, yet unrelated discussions heard clearly = brings Cléo to the realisation that she is not the centre of everyone’s thoughts = Cléo sits down in the café + jump-cuts are used to remove milliseconds worth of the footage = disorientation + reminder of Cléo’s unfamiliarity with this new outlook of insignificance

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Motif of nature brought into her life by Antoine = “paulownias” “le premier jour de l’été” “la flore” = notion of fertility, change, vitality helps Cléo appreciate her physical surroundings = “connaître le Liban et les paulownias” = ready to embrace world Elizabeth Ezra: “narcissistic shell”

SO goes from “une maison vide” to willing to embrace world/accept she’s not always the centre

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Gender 

the stereotypes are projected onto Cleo: looked upon in streets : just as women considered commodities/vessels of beauty

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a rejection of them: Cléo gazes back, asks questions and gains an opinion, dresses herself, leaves without a governess figure, enters public sphere : her very being on the streets is a challenge, as she rejects social norms by neither being a prostitute nor a man working outside : rewriting of gendered world of work also challenged by cab driver

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Cléo problematizes these norms by residing in the domestic sphere as a woman ‘should’ but makes it a hybrid space by working there

= Gender roles highlighted and then repositioned

= subject of male gaze, their task is to resubjectify themselves. = all woven from cultural background into film. 

BUT: where is the turning point actually?

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Rehearsal scene IS pivotal = it’s the turning point where things begin to change = things above, also based on singing = different medium to spoken discourse indicates an imminent shift from tradition

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Things keep changing from there on = café scene, realisation of insignificance = encouragement to accept human body comes from Dorothee and Antoine = enthusiasm about nature comes from Antoine = reveals name and fear to Antoine = sings to herself in garden (performance based but no need for an audience)

X Flitterman-Lewis = pivotal moment in C’s evolution from “woman-as-spectacle to woman-as-social-being” = “crucial textual hinge” ✓Jill Forbes = parc Montsouris is the site of the observatory used for observing the movement of the stars = was where the Paris meridian was established until it was superseded by Greenwich = also becomes Florence = crosses the meridian, becomes Florence, see rebirth in baby in incubator

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Actually, would be odd to suddenly change outlook drastically Element of her former self remains: fear of nudity/death lasts longer : ‘musique’ in park BUT: at least admits her fears : performs just for herself, not desperate for an audience : juxtaposition with when tells taxi driver it’s her song, keen for praise

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Documentary realism

Jill Forbes = “recording life as it is lived” = “reveals the wonder of everyday Paris with characters and landscapes taken from everyday life”

= therefore now “has acquired a nostalgic glow” (LIKE A POSTCARD OF 60s PARIS) = open backed buses, Gare Montparnasse before modernised, Citroen taxis

= “a film about Paris”  

i.e. we see the streets constantly, the shops, the transport even when we feel inside we’re attached to the city = hybrid spaces of taxis, cafes with terraces, cinema = hear about Algeria/Edith Piaf on the radio, a stream of the outside world coming in = also students who lean into the taxi etc. = snippets of other convos in cafes = first one, screen split by a mirror, witness a break up at same time as Angele’s story = act of walking = don’t appear in places without us having first seen the journey = walk in the real time it would take to cross the streets etc = streets aren’t deserted to speed it up

Jill Forbes: streetwalking is an existential quest for meaning (flâneuse) : to resolve identity issue (Cleo = mortality) : particularly fitting as existentialism by Heidegger is about our inability to accept our finitude

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Space and time

Multiple timelines and multiple spaces

Time: countdown time and developing time   

Tension grows through clocks, ticking, subtitles with time The fact 2 hours is compressed into 90 minutes = urgency The finiteness of 5 a 7 also implies an urgency, need to escape from pressure

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A regulation of time in the swinging motion

Jill Forbes: 6 Rue de Huygens: mathematician, application of pendulum to regulate movement of clocks : 6 is moment of stasis between 5 and 7, just as 21st June, summer solstice, swing and rocking chair

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BUT there’s also a move to maturity over the film’s time Jill Forbes: Angele calls her “un enfant”, compared to kitten and swing, primitivism of masks : journey from childhood to maturity

Space: interiority, exteriority and in between

two parallel journeys : (1) towards externalising herself/asserting herself Paris as interior : (2) towards internalising and supressing her fears and self-obsession  Cléo never physically leaves Paris but references to outside, external world : aninintegral part of her war move subjectivity and self discovery  Exoticism: masks window, Algerian ontoradio, Antoine, African student thrust against taxi window : BUT there are also hybrid spaces, cafes/taxis etc, which further problematize and challenge the convention that women should be inside. Hybrid spaces to problematize/challenge gendered spaces

= to destabilise the designation of women to the domestic sphere + men to the public one. Jill Forbes = “immense uncertainty” surrounding spaces designated to men and women Journey towards exteriority = works inside (hat shop, studio which is clinically white, serious for work) = lives outside 1. Externalising vision: appropriates the outside space w/ gaze = and cafes, taxis w/ newsto reports/catcalling/student where in half out : contrast how she’s followed as thethrust, object on Ruehalf de Rivoli. = brings chaos to the conventions, empowers Cleo by suggesting her role is not necc. inside = reversal of domestic/private sphere for women and outside = men’s work 2. Externalising convictions: from outburst, “c’est moi qui pars” “je fais ce qui me plait" : happy in park, alone: she cries “musique” without needing an audience = Dorothée lives on Rue des Artistes, discuss surrealism in open café, frog swallower, sculpting in greenhouse, cinema film takes place on Paris Bridge

Alison Smith: “her meetings with Dorothée and Antoine contain a genuine exchange” : “j’aurais peur qu’on trouve un defaut” : "vraiment ça ne te gêne pas de poser?” curiosity Movement/exteriority 

Like Forbes: “incarnates [a] :new mobility” “Pour moi la nudité c’est l’indiscretion. C’est la nuit et puis… la maladie" : "cette enorme peur de mourir” contrast with silent omens : "connaitre le Liban"

3. Journey of opening up literalised : transport becoming less enclosed (taxi, open top car, public bus) = part of her journey to self-discovery and empowerment/independence is about asserting herself and reclaiming the public sphere which is considered to be male dominated. = through her opinions, her presence in public life, her repossession of the objectifying gaze which treats women as commodities/vessels for men’s ideals of beauty Journey towards interiority (suppression) 1. Suppression of obsession w/ beauty: less mirrors, removal of wig and hat = natural : reveals name to Antoine, X need to be associated with elegance a and power synonymous w/ a Pharaoh : rejection of “tant que je suis belle je suis vivante” 2.

Suppression of fear of death: “il me semble que j’ai plus de peur” “il me semble que j’suis heureuse”

= part of her journey to seeing the world in a wider sense, thinking beyond herself and her importance Hybrid spaces to challenge gendered spaces

= to attack conventions generally/problematize/bring confusion to designation of women to domestic sphere + men outside Jill Forbes = “immense uncertainty” surrounding spaces designated to men and women = works inside (hat shop, studio which is clinically white, serious for work) = lives outside = and cafes, taxis w/ news reports/catcalling/student thrust, where half in half out = brings chaos to the conventions, empowers Cleo by suggesting her role is not necessarily inside = reversal of domestic/private sphere for women and outside = men’s work

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Algerian war    

Background of Algerian war mentioned in a marginal way Question of AW are on the edge of the film Through Antoine, news in taxi Covertly critical of war? = Cleo’s happy ending is placed out of reach not by the fear which pursued a her during the film, but the fact Antoine must return

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= this potential happy ending is made even more tantalisingly close by the film Cleo sees = shows a woman/doll appear dead but recovered by lover, walk off into a sunset = what could’ve happened between C + A if war wasn’t going on = Cleo et Antoine de 18h15 a 18h30 = sad, confirms it’s him who’s brought order/regularity/calm to her life = BUT, he’s leaving… = “si vous etiez avec moi en Algerie vous auriez tout le temps peur alors” = trivialises her situation, he faces genuine concrete threat

“Il y a eu encore aujourd’hui des manifestations musulmanes en Algerie" "Bilan… 20 morts et 60 blessés" 

Paris as a woman 

External reflection of C’s thoughts = Rivoli deuil etc = presence of mirrors = hybrid spaces to challenge conventions/bring chaos

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Does the city become the inside safe space? = freaks out at exoticism (feels unwell...