To coincide with their Agnès Varda retrospective in May, the BFI is re-releasing this wonderful gem from the Rive Gauche filmmaker.
The film follows the beautiful and spoilt singer Cléo between the hours of 5pm and 6.30pm as she wanders around the streets of early 1960s Paris while she awaits the results of a hospital test.
Ostensibly a simple tale, it becomes a moving portrait of a young woman whose frilly, coiffed exterior belies her inner turmoil and anxieties about her own mortality.
The film is beautifully shot mainly in black and white, with a striking opening sequence of a tarot card reading filmed in colour. Watch out for cameos from Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina paying homage to silent comedy clowns in a charming film-within-the-film.
