• Varda’s third feature after La Pointe Courte, Cleo From 5 to 7– she goes a resounding 3 for 3 here- one of the most promising starts to any career
  • Gorgeous 35mm color photography (her first in color)- she fills her frames color, floral décor
  • Uses 3 dp’s, 2 editors
  • Stunning sunflower shot opening credit sequence
  • Mozart perfectly fits—starts with an idyllic  “Day in the Country”- Renoir-like Father’s day—hokey– this is a damning criticism of a male-centric world
  • So stylistically and formally well-done—fading to colors in editing- beautiful
  • Patterned dresses, primary color’s galore—colored trucks passing in the frames, over the top advertising part of her complex mise-en-scene— it’s Demy (in the same period as him) or Contempt from Godard. Same year as Pierrot from him and Juliet of the Spirits from Fellini– fantastic experimentation in color—
  • The foliage drapes the frames
  • The husband is a smiling devil (nice, patient, annoyingly self-centered—those nature metaphors crack me up)—mimics the husband on television in a great critical shot society
  • Varda is throwing 100mph—making choices stylistically- she oscillates the camera between the tree as her protagonist is dancing with wife and then alternately with girlfriend
  • Beautiful montage of still frame photographs shaping the body with the blonde in bed
  • A triumph of editing and mise-en-scene/color
  • Repeat edit 5X upon her death in a nice sequence
  • 79 minutes
  • Couldn’t find the still but a great shot of the blonde in a purple robe, purple flowers, reading purple books
  • Far from the touches of neo-realism in La Pointe Courte, parts of Cleo– and Vagabond to follow in 1985 which is Varda’s most neo-realistic and frankly least beautiful film
  • Haunting final shot of the new family, dressed the same like out of an advertisement, going into the forest— fade to yellow
  • Must-see