Cléo de 5 à 7

No film from the beginnings of the Nouvelle Vague has changed as much in the light of its author's later films as Cléo. When it was released five years ago, it didn't seem all that different from the other films by the young directors who were beginning to reform French cinema at the time, ushering in a new period in cinema history. Like Les Cousins, Les Quatre cents coups and A bout de souffle, it played in natural decors. After years in the studios, the young people had rediscovered reality as a place of action for film. Their motto of only talking about what they really knew suggested that Agnès Varda make a film centred on a woman. She also seemed to pay homage to the fad of private jokes with the slapstick-style little film in her film, whose stars are Karina, Godard, Brialy, Eddie Constantine and Sami Frey. Among all the new films, Varda's film was still related to two in a special way: Rohmer's Signe du lion (Under the Lion's Sign) and Rivette's Paris nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us). In all three films, Paris is more than just a place of action. It provokes specific behaviours, it plays along with people. Only by trying to see through the city do the three heroes succeed in living in it in a more humane way. Frieda Grafe "Kleine Filmkunstreihe" Issue 69/1967