Rotten Tomatoes Logo Do you want to see ‘Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7)’?

Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962)

tomatometer

No Score Yet...

Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 1

audience

89

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 4,586

My Rating

Movie Info

Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cleo de cinq a sept), per its title, concentrates on two hours in the life of a woman. Those hours are desperate ones, in that Cleo, a pop singer, awaits the results of her tests for cancer. Director Agnes Varda stages the film in "real" rather than subjective time, its various episodes divided into chapters, using significant Tarot cards. During the allotted time, Cleo visits her friends, tries to sing her worries away, spends money, and cries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Agnès Varda

May 16, 2000

Zenith International Films

Cast

All Critics (22) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (1) | DVD (7)

Varda transforms the typical French cinema gamine into a complex, tragic figure: the girl who's all too good at playing plaything, forced to face the hollowness of her youth.

November 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Generally, Mlle. Varda is so absorbed with her camera stunts, as she is in that scene in the hat shop or when she is screening that comedy short, that the essential concentration on the heroine is neglected and the interest lost.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment (1)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Definitely a document from lost-past times.

May 6, 2010 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

The Parisian streetscapes are beautiful and thrilling, and the tarot scene at the beginning, combined with overheard fragments of anxious city lives, give this something of TS Eliot.

April 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

Race to see Agnes Varda's exquisite 1962 New Wave masterpiece, about an hour and a half in the life of a gorgeous, possibly dying chanteuse.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

One of the Nouvelle Vague's boldest achievements.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Like many New Wave films, Cléo from 5 to 7 alternates between ambiguity and charm on the one hand, vagueness and whimsy on the other.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Financial Times | Comment
Financial Times

This remarkable feature typifies all that was good in French film-making during its celebrated New Wave.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment
Radio Times

Varda could have stopped after "Cleo From 5 to 7" with the assurance that she'd contributed more to cinema than most directors.

January 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

Varda uses her documentary skills to take an objective approach to the material, rather than a sentimental one. It's amazing how much can happen in two hours.

November 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

... has its spirited moments.

August 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Not every minute is as spirited as Varda would like us to believe, but in the cinema of enchantment this ranks pretty high.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

As good as almost any entry from the French New Wave...a devastating portrait of running out of time...

October 7, 2004 Comment
eCinemaCenter.com

By most accounts, photographer-turned-director Agnès Varda is considered the archetypal girl who crashed the big boys' clubhouse, and Cléo from 5 to 7 was the film that paid her membership fee.

July 12, 2003 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Why Agnes Varda's Cleo From 5 to 7 is not considered a classic of the French New Wave on the order of Truffaut's The 400 Blows or Godard's Breathless is a complete mystery. Well, I tell a lie.

April 3, 2003 Full Review Source: Not Coming to a Theater Near You | Comment
Not Coming to a Theater Near You
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7)

while the plot is quite simple, a young capricious woman awaiting test results, this is filmmaking at its finest. varda creates a new fiction by merging real time, cinema verite, and multiperspectives. WOW!

December 7, 2008
bookmunki

Super Reviewer

This is from the Criterion Film Collection. I guess its because I am not french or maybe its just a bad run of French Films lately but I think I am going to pass on the french films for a while, I tried I really did, good Black and white background scenes, but is was painfull to hang in there till the end.

June 15, 2008
bbcfloridabound
Bruce Bruce

Super Reviewer

Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) Quotes

No quotes approved yet for Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7). Logged in users can submit quotes.

Movies Like Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7)

Latest News for Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7)

What's Hot On RT

Critics Consensus
Critics Consensus

Journey 2 Not Worth the Trip

Luis Guzman
Luis Guzman

What are his 10 best movies ever?

<em>Amazing Spider-Man</em>
Amazing Spider-Man

See the all-new action-packed trailer!

The Avengers!
The Avengers!

Five new Marvelous pictures

Top Movie Quizzes

LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 18,566 taken
created 12 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 44,437 taken
created 15 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 27,153 taken
created 15 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 27,649 taken
created 15 months ago

Foreign Titles

  • Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cleo de 5 a 7) (DE)
  • Cleo From 5 to 7 (Cleo de 5 a 7) (UK)
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Blog | Developers | Mobile