The Agnes Varda Collection Vol.1

Obv this is a review for Cleo from 5 to 7 but as the film is bunched in with others by the director, you may be wondering what this is about. Anyway, Cleo from 5 to 7 is a classic French film, sure, but I didn't find the lead charismatic and she just goes about her day with a death sentence of cancer hanging over her. It's mundane, but that's the style. Some nice b+w shots of Paris but not that much.

loved the way the film was shot in almost real time - extras on the dvd were good too

Plot is minimal, acting is a tad superficial and all that happens is a naive guy expects his wife to lovingly embrace his extra-marital affair, which she doesn't.

Lots of fading to red and blue transitions and shots of sunflowers did not make the film look beautiful but rather reminded me of some lame 70s sitcom.

Plot is minimal, acting is a tad superficial and all that happens is a naive guy expects his wife to lovingly embrace his extra-marital affair, which she doesn't.

Lots of fading to red and blue transitions and shots of sunflowers did not make the film look beautiful but rather reminded me of some lame 70s sitcom.

A dazzling piece of film making.

The simplest of stories: a glamorous female pop singer spends two hours waiting to hear if she's got a terminal disease and spends the time shopping (ecstatically), rehearsing (uselessly), meeting her (rich, vacuous) lover, wandering the streets of Paris, watching the world (oblivious to her predicament) go by. On one level nothing much happens. On another, we witness someone who has been sleep-walking her way through a B-list celebrity (non-)life, suddenly beginning to wake up and really live for the first time, without any kind of heavy-handed moralising and full of a clear-eyed compassion for a central character it would be easy to condemn from the get-go. It's a deeply moving, visually stunning (as beautiful as, if not more so than anything else produced by your Truffauts and Demys and Godards) ride of a movie. You also get an extraordinary whirlwind tour of Paris that makes 'Breathless' seem anaemic and staid.

I can't recommend this film too highly.

I haven't seen anything else by Varda, as her work is so hard to get hold of in this country. But after watching this mini-masterpiece, I'm dying to see more.

I guess you could liken it to something like 'Lost in Translation' (which is obviously influenced by it), or the kind of infectious joie de vivre of 'Jules et Jim', but really it stands alone and is pretty much unlike anything else I've seen. It's also about as timely as it could be, going straight to the heart of the modern consumerist / celebrity malaise we seem so mired in - but don't let that put you off!