maren knox

I was already angry today and this just made me more angry.

*“I’m suffocating” *lights cigarette** Even just an hour and a half can be integral to one’s life. I love the narrative choices; the restricted time frame is where this film shines.  Yeah yeah, you can argue Cahiers du Cinéma vs the Left Bank on what counts as real French New Wave as much as you want, regardless, Agnès Varda is a beast. As the main female filmmaker of this movement, her role was very important.  The awareness of the influence of the female gaze shows through here and there’s the lack of male pretentiousness and misogyny that tends to exist in some other French New Wave. This film gives women of the time real agency. As much as the men of French New Wave created visually intriguing films and helped revolutionize aspects of filmmaking, they also missed completely on their perception of women. Often treating women more as aesthetic objects than people. That’s why Varda was so important, to actively challenge the curated aesthetic of the Cahiers du Cinéma men and to lean more into politically charged themes.  The cinematography had me fully hooked. When a film effectively uses reflections it automatically scores points with me. You can feel when the perspective shifts and Cléo starts living for herself instead of others. When her self image becomes compromised and she has to redefine herself, and the personal freedom that follows. *“I think my fear is gone. I think I’m happy.”*