Cléo from 5 to 7
Follows a young singer (Corinne Marchand) from 1700 to around 1830 as she awaits a cancer diagnosis.
Seeing this having seen the wonderful Varda by Agnès1 is a great experience, you really feel the director behind the camera. Like most French New Wave films it defies convention, and yet there’s an earnestness and sense of humour to this one that sets it apart from its peers.
For a film that happens in real time it never bores, yet also doesn’t seem to go to any huge laboured effort to paper over the cracks in time that real life presents. The concept always serves the film rather than the other way around, which isn’t always an easy thing to acheive.
I love how much Varda plays with glass and mirrors, unafraid of showing the camera in the shot if needs be. It’s not strictly breaking the fourth wall but it’s also not completely careless.