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Analysis Of Cloo De 7

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Agnes Varda, ‘the grandmother of the French New Wave’ is known for her quirky, documentary-styled cinematography. The title sequence of her second major film, Cloe 5 à 7, let’s the viewer glimpse upon this highly-stylized cinematography she would go on to perfect. Quoting Varda, she ‘wanted to make a very violent sequence that confronts the film within its contrast’. The film opens with Cléo (the main character the viewer follows for the rest of the film) getting her tarot card’s read. The scene is cluttered with small adornments (like a decorated table cloth and small clocks) and is punctuated with animated typography. Varda choses to open the film in highly saturated colors but cuts sharply to black and white when we first see Cléo. This uniquely constructed title sequence forebodes the common motifs seen throughout Cléo de 5 à 7 like the use of pseudoscience’s, themes of death, and Cloe’s highly emotional character. Firstly, the opening scene with highly saturated colored tarot cards and the switch from color to black and white sets up an air of confusion within the film. A bit of a fantasy world where perception and perspective are obscured. The scene instigates a sort of ‘science of confusion’. These confusions and blurred boundaries set up an easy introduction for pseudoscience. When Cléo meets Antoine (a solider leaving for Algeria), he begins to speak of zodiacs and astrology. Cléo quickly shuts him down but eventually comes to terms with it. This also adds

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