Cleo 5 to 7 as a New Wave Film Essay -- Movie Film Essays

Cleo 5 to 7 as a New Wave Film Agnes Varda is not only one of the few female directors of new wave cinema; she is also credited as having helped create the genre. Her short film La Point–Courte is considered by some as the first new wave film. Her first full length movie, Cleo 5 to 7 falls within this genre as well. It is the story of a young woman dying of cancer and how she sees the world in the context of time. We follow the singer Cleo as she changes into the woman Flora and as she does so she begins to look at time in a different manner. It is the way time is represented through the camera shots which really make this film part of its new wave genre. The movie begins with a five minute prologue that occurs during the credits in which we receive all the important aspects of the following 90 minute film. We see a fortune teller, or rather a shot of her hands while she turns over the tarot cards that are Cleo’s fortune. This scene uses a multitude of hand shots, contrasting the old woman’s and the young woman’s hands. During the scene there is a jump cut between from the old...