Lise and Jonnie's 30 Countries 2019

Film#15 - - again … the Varda exception this year.

With the sad ing of groundbreaking filmmaker Agnès Varda, and Lise’s encouragement to 30 Countries participants to watch one of her films for the contest, even if they’ve already watched a French film, I thought I would start with her groundbreaking Cleo from 5 to 7. I’ve never really gotten on with French New Wave with the exception of her husband’s Jacques Deme’s films. I’m embarrassed to say that the only Varda film I’ve seen is her second to last, Faces, Places which she made with fellow photographer JR a few years ago. I loved it, I thought it was delightful. I read a bit about her back then, and she’s one amazing woman.

I immediately saw that many films that I love that stand on Cleo’s shoulders. The first film that popped into my mind was Oslo, August 31st. Joachim Trier’s protagonist, Anders, after a major life event, wanders throughout a day. His observations of people around him, what they’re saying, and his inability to understand their meaning is laid out in Varda’s film from forty nine years before. Aside from any film by Linklater, and I’m sure dozens of others I’m not aware of, the other film the popped into my mind was Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson. Although Cleo’s spans 2 hours, Oslo a day, and Paterson a week, the basic construction is the same. A character just traverses a specific period of time, and meets people along the way. Hell, now I just thought of Lynch’s The Straight Story. As far as I know, this is all because of Agnès Varda.

Varda also acknowledges the past. While I’d have to research to be sure, I’m pretty sure Cleo is the first film to use a reverse Black and White to Colour transition since The Wizard of Oz from 13 years previous. Also, here real-time Varda observes a real-time story, much like Fred Zinnemann did with High Noon a decade before.

Alas, while her recent Faces Places, and her husband’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort, were quite different than what I had experienced from other French New Wave directors, Cleo is not. It has the same snivelling protagonist and existential jibber-jabber that I despise from others in The French New Wave … and modern homages to the movement.

After the film finished, I thought I wasn’t going to rate it. I didn’t hate it, … there were lots of things to love, but that old hate of FNW just came bubbling back. I thought an unrated review would be best.

But no, that’s not what this film deserves, or Agnès Varda deserves. Even though I had my FNW issues, it was clearly groundbreaking visually, and groundbreaking in observational techniques. I may not love it, but I recognize its importance. I also recognize the importance of Agnès Varda, a woman director in the time when there were very few … almost none.

Varda reminds me of Golshifteh Farahani’s character, Laura, in Paterson. She didn’t know she couldn’t do things, so she just did them.

Godspeed Agnès Varda. I’ll watch your films even if I don’t like them.