Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Cleo's Odyssey
The motif of a journey is one of the oldest in literature. Much like Odysseus' travels, Cleo in Cleo from 5 to 7 is also engaged in a life-changing journey. What are some of the obstacles she must overcome? What are some of the things she learns? How does her outward journey mirror her inner one? What, if anything, is her goal?
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In "Cleo from 5 to 7" one of the most prominent ideas is vulnerability. In the beginning of the film Cleo is heartbroken over the fact that she may have cancer and this leads her to live her life fearing the unknown. Cleo begins to develop a hopeless attitude toward making music, having fun, and in her overall life. In addition to this Cleo wears black clothing, as if by hearing that there is a possibility that she may have cancer is her death sentence. However, her outlook on life changes when she meets a kind man who teaches her and shows her what it means to be vulnerable through his actions. For example, he essentially confesses his love for her and supports her while she waits for her medical test results, even though she does not immediately respond to his strong feelings for her. After Cleo meets this man her attitude becomes much more positive as she learns that being vulnerable is not a bad thing, after all, she took a chance with the man and ended up really liking him. Furthermore, she translates this concept of vulnerability into her medical situation, as she realizes that even if she has cancer she does not have to stop her life for it. Instead, she learns that life is a precious thing that will eventually come to an end, so it is important to take risks and accept things that are not in your control in order to make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly seen in The Odyssey Cleo goes on a life altering journey over the course of just two short hours. Within this period her perspective on life is shifted as she learns what is truly important in life. In the beginning of the film Cleo is shown constantly looking in every mirror she passes and making sure she has the best looking hair and outfit in all of Paris. Her vanity is undeniable which causes her to be unable to cope with the fact that she may have cancer. She can only imagine the negatives it will bring her life and is constantly miserable from just the thought that she may be ill. After meeting a man with a different outlook on life however, she is given the chance to look at the world in a different way. Through his openness and vulnerability he shows her the beauty in life, and the fact that a possible early ending should encourage you to live more fully while you can. His point of view is much more outwardly focused rather than such a vain one, such as Cleo’s. In the beginning of the film her goal would have been to live as long and as well off as possible; however, by the end she is able to see that is more important to live the current moments that you have whole heartedly, no matter what the future may or may not hold. Over her afternoon in Paris, Cleo gets a major reality check into what she should focus her life on and what makes her truly happy.
ReplyDeleteCentury of Film
ReplyDeleteAriel Cohen
4/10/2019
The two hour difference
In Cleo from 5 to 7, a young women changes her outlook on life, more than once, within the short time frame of two hours. In the beginning of the movie Cleo is shown as this young hip popstar who cares deeply about her image. There are copious amounts of early scenes where Cleo is shown looking in the mirror, checking out her beautiful facial features and her luscious wig that completed her image. It is clear to the audience how much she used to care about her looks when there were close up shots about how much emotion and power was behind Cleo’s eyes as she looked in the mirror. At this point in Cleo’s life she is fully focused on her image and her career as a pop artist. When Cleo realizes that she might be ill her confidence quickly drops as her worrying takes over. She realizes that her life will be turned upside down and her image will be destroyed forever. Cleo’s wig comes off, she changes her look to match her worries of dying from cancer. Cleo starts to only wear black to represent the death that she is so petrified of. At this point in the story Cleo is now only focused on the negatives cancer could bring her. She feels petrified and is in a constant state of negativity which strains her from seeing life as anything other than miserable. In the scene where Cleo goes to visit her old friend, she explains that she is sick and acts like it doesn’t bother her as much until she gets to the restaurant and can’t help but to cry and feel worried. It isn’t until Cleo meets a nice man that her outlook changes. From the very first scene that the two met in the park, he has turned Cleo into a more accepting person to life. Cleo is convinced by the nice man to face her problems and feel beautiful again. In the bus scene on the way to the doctors he is flirting with Cleo making her feel beautiful again and bring love and light into her life. The nice man stays by Cleo’s side and distracts her by talking about his life and his future going back to the army. He distracts Cleo from her current situation and that eventually teaches her there is more to life than worrying, and thinking about someone beside yourself. The nice man completely changes Cleo into a curious and hopeful woman who can now see beauty in life. This movie’s lesson is to teach the audience not to have a fixed mindset and to be accepting and open to change your mindset into something beautiful.
In just two hours of Cleo’s life her journey alters tremendously as she finds out her illness. During the first half of the movie there are many scenes in which Cleo seems stressed about the fact that she will most likely be diagnosed with cancer by the end of the day. Her two hours from 5 to 7 starts her at the fortune teller where she receives bad news and death vibes. Right from the start Cleo’s vulnerability and susceptibility is noticed as she is trusting a fortune teller to reveal her future instead of just waiting the hour till she receives the news from the doctor himself. Cleo’s superstition continues throughout as she breaks a mirror and states the bad luck that will come because of it. However, as the movie goes on, Cleo meets a man who she spends the rest of her day with. After she meets him and they become more open and intimate with each other she has a realization that she is happy and should be happy with her life that is given to her. After she receives her test results at the end of the movie stating that she will most likely be fine after just a couple months of chemotherapy she realizes that she can easily overcome this bump in the road. At the beginning of the movie Cleo was admiring the beauty of herself, but at the end, she overcame her selfishness and realizes the beauty of life. She finally notices that she has been wasting her time worrying about her illness when she should be taking the time to appreciate the life that she is living.
ReplyDeleteCleo must overcome her own superstitions and fears before she is able to accept her own mortality. In the opening of the film, we see Cleo go to a tarot card reader. The women tells Cleo what the cards say about various people in her life and mentions her illness but does not fully divulge how bad it is. Already, this scene shows us how easily influenced Cleo is by psychic predictions and other forms of predicting the future. Cleo leaves the fortuneteller unhappily and very concerned about her illness. Cleo’s fears about her illness follow her around for the rest of the day. When the two musicians come to her house and give her a new song to sing, Cleo finds herself overwhelmed with fear because of how sad the song is and because it forces her to think about her own mortality. Cleo’s friend also breaks a mirror at one point, which Cleo sees as an omen of death. Breaking a mirror is usually seen as a superstitious thing that brings bad luck for 7 years, and clearly, Cleo believes that and takes it even further, seeing it as a sign of death. However, once Cleo goes to the park, she begins to loosen up. She dances a little, and seems happier than we’ve seen her at any other point in the movie. This is where she also meet Antoine. It is through her conversations with him that Cleo begins to really accept what is happening to her. He is also the one who takes her to the hospital to get her test results. While at the hospital, it is confirmed by her doctor that Cleo does in fact have cancer. The doctor assures her though that she will be fine while chemotherapy. After hearing this news, based on how Cleo has acted for the rest of the movie, the audience should expect some kind of dramatic reaction from Cleo. However, Cleo is calm, and she even says to Antoine, “I think I’m happy.” This simple phrase and her lack of melodramatic reaction shows Cleo has let go of her fear and superstitions and is willing to confront her illness instead of running from it.
ReplyDeleteCleo, from Cleo form 5 to 7, learns that her happiness is more important than many of her responsibilities as a singer. Cleo starts the movie off as a self-centered pop star who is unable to complete many basic tasks for herself. She dresses in attention grabbing outfits that draw attention to herself because everything revolves around her. She is disrespectful to many of the people she knows, but her actions shift as she goes through the different phases of accepting that she probably has cancer. When she learns this, she begins to dress in outfits with more black and she spends more time with her friends. Her actions make it seem like she preparing for her death sentence. However, she starts to do different activities because she thinks they are fun, and she even goes and spends time in a park where she meets her new friend. When she meets him, she realizes that in the end, she just wants to be happy. For most of her life, she was not happy, and it is ironic that now for the first time she is at peace with herself and her life. She is finally able to accept that she many not have a lot of time left, so she should spend it with friends and people she wants to be around. Her goal is just to be happy with the life she lived because she accepts that she is lucky with the life she has. She is not going to let cancer beat her because she needs to be the best in everything she does.
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ReplyDeleteThroughout the span of two hours, egotistical Cleo is reminded that there is more in life than one's image. At the beginning of the film, Cleo met with a Tarot Card reader, who foretold her impending death. Upon hearing this disheartening news, Cleo attempts to commit suicide at a local restaurant. When her friends prevented it, she reminds herself that, "as long as I'm beautiful, I'm alive". Cleo clings onto her beauty as if it is the only thing she still has. However, in doing so, she suffers a lot from the lack of love she receives. This is evident in her encounters with her closest friends. In one scene, two pianists come over to her house to practice some songs. When she begins to sing "Sans Toi", which translates to "without you", her mood suddenly drops. Cleo believes that she is the most beautiful singer, but when singing this song, she realized that she is essentially exploited. Everyone spoiled her with luxury goods, but no one actually loved her. As a result, she left her friends. She again felt more depressed when she entered a café to play her song in the jukebox. However, no one paid attention and she left. Cleo would go on and on with more experiences of sadness as people failed to notice her or love her until she met Antoine, a soldier from the Algerian war. In their conversation, Antione makes a comment about how people love in halves when they are afraid, and Cleo believed this statement described her perfectly. She only loved herself and not others when she learned about her potential death. However, upon hearing news from the doctor that she will live, her mood rose quickly. When Cleo finally forgot about her fears, she is able to live a happier life. In the end, Cleo transforms from a person who loves herself into a person who loves others as well.
In Cleo from 5 to 7, Cleo must face an incredibly common struggle at a very tremendous rate: her own mortality. Though all people must eventually come to grips (or die trying haha) with their own end of life, Cleo faces this problem earlier than most as she believes she is doomed to death within months from cancer. She is waiting news from the doctor, which is supposed to arrive at 7pm, hence the 5 to 7. Her entire journey takes place over the span of two hours, throughout which she gets increasingly mad at people, especially men, for not taking her illness seriously enough. All of the men in her life do not take her seriously when she tells them of her worries of cancer. Her piano player, Bob (in case that matters), pretends to be a doctor because “all women love a good joke.” She eventually gets angry to the point where she storms out of her own apartment. Another thing going wrong for Cleo is her aptitude for doing things colloquially considered bad luck inducing, such as breaking a mirror. She continues to wallow in her own self-pity until she meets Antoine, a soldier on leave from the Algerian War. He helps Cleo to realize her selfishness at her own misfortune, and she learns to (at least somewhat) put it behind her and operate outside of her own needs. She is given much needed determination and courage by being with Antoine, which was not even needed because the doctor said she will be cured in months. Her outward journey is reflective of her inner journey in the sense that they are both time sensitive. Whatever happens to Cleo, she has to be at the doctor’s at 7pm with some sort of mentality, so all she can control is the way she thinks. She has freedom of thought, but not complete freedom of action.
ReplyDeleteCleo from 5 to 7 explores Cleo’s journey to accept her own vulnerability. Cleo, at 5 PM, is willing to distort reality in any way to deny her fear of death. She first visits a fortune teller, looking for a reassuring card reading. After seeing the ill omens revealed in the reading, Cleo is temporarily shaken, but calms herself with a mantra: “as long as I’m beautiful, I’m alive.” This Cleo is a person who vehemently refuses to grapple with her vulnerability, preferring instead to bargain, justify, or just bury her head under the sand. Throughout the majority of the film, Cleo gives into superstition—she believes that as long as she avoids thinking about death, she will be safe from it. When the two musicians perform the song “Sans Toi” (Without You), Cleo gets extremely upset and leaves her home. Cleo’s meeting with the soldier, Antoine, finally dispels her denial of fear. Antoine is someone who is scared, and knows he is scared—he tells Cleo that he could die fighting a pointless war. Even so, Antoine confronts reality with confidence. This meeting inspires Cleo to face her fear of death head-on. Cleo ends up happier, no longer worrying and ruminating. In fact, her test results ended up not actually being bad; the doctor expects her to be cured within a few months. Cleo from 5 to 7 is not a journey about overcoming enemies like the suitors of Penelope, but rather an equally powerful odyssey about learning to accept and deal with one’s own weakness.
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