Cleopâtre, Je Vous Idolâtre

I went down to the TIFF Lightbox on a chilly Sunday night to see Cléo de 5 à 7, one of my favourite French New Wave movie by director Agnes Varda. Modern audiences would probably find it a little slow and boring (as attested by a gentleman who was deeply asleep in the front row as we filed out at the end). The film chronicles in "real time" Florence "Cléo" Victoire (Corinne Marchand), a young and vain singer, wandering through Parisian neighbourhoods from 5 pm to 7 pm, meeting up with strangers and friends. The only plot device is that she is waiting on a medical test, with the possibility of bad outcome, and her growing realization that her care-free lifestyle may be too shallow and unexamined. Cinephiles may also get a tickle out of the uncredited cameo appearances of various famous French personalitites from that era. As for myself, I particularly enjoy the melodramatic song Sans Toi sung by Cléo about half-way through, which gives a nice jolt if the viewer is become a bit despairing about the meandering and fluffy plot.

The other enjoyment is to simply immerse yourself in the beautiful city of Paris: the buildings, the bistros, the view. Every location is organically what every nouveau urban planner tries to accomplish nowadays: lively street life, walkable, and human-scaled. Inspired by the film, I looked up a few spot on Google. Alas, even in Paris, some areas have not escaped ugly suburban modernity. The area around Parc Montsouris looks like it may come straight out of Mimico. This may be an upgrade for Mimico but given that in the 60s, this quarter was lined with tree-filled streets and wonderful architecture. Luckily, other areas such as Rue Huygens around the café Le Dome still retain their old-world charm.

I've always wanted map out the neighbourhood and routes travelled by Cléo in this film. It would make a fun day tour to visit modern Paris and retrace her steps, chronicling what has changed. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a Corinne Marchand song in a jukebox in some old café along the way.