Movies

An eloquent, flâneur-like portrait of 1960s Paris, as seen through a female gaze. It is a chronicle of the passage of time. It shows how women see the world and how the world sees them.

A spoilt Parisian pop singer is suddenly faced with the possibility of having cancer. She is more terrified by the prospect of ugliness and disfigurement than by death itself. At the beginning of the film, the superstitious Cléo sees the figure of Death appear in her tarot cards. The fortune teller suggests that the card may also signify transformation, but Cléo is not someone who can easily come to terms with maturation, ageing or death. By portraying a woman whose sense of self is shaped not by her own desires and impulses, but by her need for approval from others, Varda reveals the vanity hidden behind female beauty. Paris becomes a hall of mirrors, with shop windows and passers-by reflecting the heroine’s inner state.