Happpy to see you back, bookworm345. I usually check this board once a week to look for something new which may give me an excuse to review the movie, though the board gets new post probably once a month. ;-)
<<<Another thing I forgot to mention that Cleo 'shes" when molting is her fake name! >>>
What do you mean? Is that the lyric Michel Legrand sings when she "shes" to him? I don't remember any other scenes in which she "shes". By the way, Cleo's really neame is Florence Victoire or Victoir, as I remember it, Cleopatra probably is just a stage name or something.
The first time I watched this film was also on a big screen, during a retrospective thing in a film archive, Agnes Varda presented herself there to make some comments about her works, a very lovely old lady. Unfortunately, 'Haut Les Coeurs' is not a famous movie, and not so great as Cleo, they didn't even make DVD for it(I can't find if on Netflix, either)! I watched the film once in a theatre especially for french films. Very real and very touching.
About Truffaut and Bergman, I watched some of their works(especially Truffaut's) last year, "Wild Strawberries" and "Jule et Jim" probably are the best of them. Bergman's other works seems a little difficult for me, like "the seventh seal" and "the winter light", which also involves death themes. Truffaut's "Shooting the Pianist" and "The Last Metro" are quite lovely. His "400 blows" may be the most famous one, especially the long shot in the last scene. Actually the ending of "Cleo's 5 to 7", "400 blows" and Godard's "Breathless" are all in a very similar way. The characters first walk or run for a litttle while and then turn their heads, and then freeze or turn to dark. ;-)
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bookworm345
17 years ago
Hi Stefaniesun. Sorry I had a typo, I meant to write Cleo "sheds" her fake name, as she sheds all the other artifices she had on, to emerge as a new person (cf. the "death" card in the Tarot as explained by the seer as a radical change or a rebirth). I like all the movies of Truffaut you mention. If you get a chance, give "The 7th Seal" a second look, it is quite easy to understandd. The main character Antonius (Max von Sydow) is a knight who just came back from the crusades. He is tortured by the questions is there a God? what is the the meaning/purpose of life? he is even willing to talk to the devil to find out. On his quest he meets a troup of traveling performers. He realizes his question is somewhat irrelevant: regardless of whether God exists or not, there is enough beauty on earth to make it worthwile. It can be found in human love, in the taste of strawberries, in a human face... There is a fabulous scene where he watches Jof and Mia interact, and Mia (Bibi Anderson filmed with light radiating from her face) passes around stawberries she has gathered in the wild. A somewhat existentialist approach.
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JacquesDemy
17 years ago
Thanks for your explanatioin and introduction. Yes, I definately will give "the 7th Seal" a second look. The first time I watched this film was probably 5 years ago, when I didn't really know how to appreciate great films and it was also hard for me to follow subtitles at that time.
<<< There is a fabulous scene where he watches Jof and Mia interact, and Mia (Bibi Anderson filmed with light radiating from her face) passes around stawberries she has gathered in the wild.>>>
It is interesting to see "wild starberries" appear in this scene, I like "Wild Stawberries" very much.
<<<<I meant to write Cleo "sheds" her fake name, as she sheds all the other artifices she had on, to emerge as a new person (cf. the "death" card in the Tarot as explained by the seer as a radical change or a rebirth). >>>>
About her 'death' or rebirth, Cleo's original name is Florence, which was explained by Antoine as Flora, the Godness of flowers or Spring, while the day is 21st June, which is the beginning of summer, that means a new peirod for Flora will begin.
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