The Best Film's You've Never Seen: Cléo from 5 to 7

French New Wave Masterpiece screening at The Capitol this July

The next classic in 'The Best Films You've Never Seen' series is Agnès Varda's highly influential, fatalistic masterwork 'Cléo from 5 to 7'.

Written and directed by trailblazing French director Agnès Varda, and set across one evening in wistful, summertime Paris, young singer Cléo Victoire traipses around city streets, cafes and apartments, awaiting the results of a biopsy that she is certain will reveal cancer.

Cléo visits a fortune teller, goes shopping with her maid, attends band practice, interacts with strangers, and soaks up Parisienne life while grappling with a sense of doom. In what is one of the most important films of Varda's long and celebrated career, Paris is captured as a flâneur's paradise, a place overflowing with life and artistic confidence as the long-fought Algerian war draws to a close.

This screening will open with an introduction from RMIT Cinema Studies academic Adrian Danks, who will explore the film's cultural legacy and discuss why 'Cléo from 5 to 7' was voted number 14 in Sight and Sound's Greatest Films of All Time list, and as the second greatest film of all time by a woman in a BBC poll of film experts.

Presented by RMIT Culture in partnership with RMIT Cinema Studies.  

  • Rating: PG
  • Language: French (English subtitles)  
  • Country: France  
  • Year: 1962  
  • Duration: 90 mins  
  • Format: DCP 

Image credit: A still from Agnès Varda's 'Cléo from 5 to 7', courtesy mk2 Films.

Share

Upcoming events

A blonde man with a laptop on his lap sitting beside a dark-haired, smiling woman with a fringe who is holding a notebook. They sit on a bright blue bench in an open outdoor area.

RMIT Study Expo

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 29 Jan 2025

The RMIT Study Expo is your chance to learn everything there is to know about your future study. Tour the Melbourne City campus and discover what RMIT has to offer.

sweet-enough-1220x732.jpg

Sweet Enough

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 25 Feb 2025 - 21 Mar 2025

Sweet Enough looks at sugar from a feminist perspective, examining the complex history, uses and roles of the medium, while celebrating the artists layered relationship with the sweet stuff.

rachel-kushner-reference-1220x732.jpg

Rachel Kushner: Creation Lake

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 04 Mar 2025

RMIT Culture and The Wheeler Centre present twice Booker Prize-nominated author Rachel Kushner, discussing her propulsive new eco-espionage novel in conversation with RMIT's Rebecca Harkins-Cross.

Load more
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

More information
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information