“A New Wave of Spectators”: Contemporary Responses to Cleo from 5 to 7

Author(s): Kelley Conway

Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Fall 2007), pp. 38-47
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2007.61.1.38
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 “A NEW WAVE OF SPECTATORS”:
CONTEMPOR ARY RESPONSES
TO CLEO FROM 5 TO 7

KELLEY CONWAY REDISCOVERS PARISIAN CINEMAGOERS’ OPINIONS

OF AGNÈS VARDA’S URBAN CHRONICLE

Central to the exceptionally rich film culture that existed after the coming of sound put a damper on the avant-garde
in France from the mid-1940s to the late 60s was the “ciné- scene, the ciné-club became a kind of sanctuary for the silent
club,” regular gatherings in which people came together to classics.3 During the Occupation, ciné-clubs were banned,
watch and discuss films, typically on a bi-weekly basis. Many but they roared back to life in the immediate post-war period.
film historians are probably aware that André Bazin, Fran- As early as March 1945, the Fédération Française des Ciné-
çois Truffaut, and Henri Langlois were involved in ciné-clubs Clubs (FFCC) reemerged with six clubs.4 Within one year,
early in their careers, but less is known about the ways in eighty-three clubs were in operation, with more than 50,000
which ciné-clubs operated and the impact they had on ordi- members.5 By 1962, the year in which Varda’s Cleo from 5
nary viewers. Two decades of ciné-club activities undoubtedly to 7 was released, there were approximately 500 clubs in
shaped the tastes and viewing strategies of an entire gener- metropolitan France alone, with an estimated membership
ation of French people. When Alain Resnais was asked in of 200,000.6 The number of films shown in the ciné-clubs is
1962 about the causes and the consequences of the French staggering: in 1961 alone, approximately 6000 feature films
New Wave, a movement usually celebrated for its audacious and 10,000 short films were screened in ciné-clubs.7 Just as
directors and its rejuvenation of style, he responded: “It is notable as the quantitative rejuvenation of the French ciné-
less a new wave of directors of which we should speak and club in the post-war era is the shift in the ciné-club’s goals.
more a new wave of spectators. The film culture of the pub- The ciné-club recast itself at this time, showing a broader
lic is infinitely more elevated than it was ten years ago. The range of films and attracting members from a wider socio-
young generation of spectators has less prejudice and is more economic spectrum of viewers than had its 1920s predeces-
demanding than before. If there really exists a renewal in the sors.
current French cinema, we owe it, in large part, to this young Film director Pierre Kast succinctly articulated the goals
generation of spectators.”1 Had French spectators become of the post-war ciné-club in the title of an article he wrote
more “demanding” by the height of the New Wave? How in 1945: “Develop Film Taste, Introduce Masterpieces, Edu-
might we characterize and contextualize their particular en- cate the Public: That is the Task of Ciné-Clubs.”8 The goal
gagement with the cinema? The trajectory of Agnès Varda’s of the revived ciné-club movement was “to form spectators
Cleo from 5 to 7 through a French ciné-club can illuminate both fully aware and passionate who will continue to frequent
these questions. commercial cinemas, more often, if possible, but with an-
other regard and a refined sensibility, more lucid and more
THE POST-WAR CINÉ-CLUB acute.”9 The ciné-club attempted to form spectators in very
The ciné-club had already played a key role in French film specific ways: through its diverse programming, through film
culture in the 1920s, when it elevated film to the status of art, education internships, and, above all, through the débat, the
promoted avant-garde, censored, and other non-commercial post-screening discussion.
films, and encouraged an awareness of film history through Ciné-club programming in the post-war era revolved
its organization of retrospectives and lectures.2 In the 1930s, around specific directors, schools, and national cinemas, and
included both documentary and fiction films, shorts and fea-
Film Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1, pps 38–47, ISSN 0015-1386, electronic ISSN 1533-8630. © 2007 by the Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s tures, experimental and genre films, and French and foreign
Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/FQ.2007.61.1.38
titles. Not surprisingly, films by celebrated auteurs were a

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Left to right: cameraman Alain
Levent, key grip Roger Scipion,
and Agnès Varda shooting
Cleo from 5 to 7.
Courtesy of Agnès Varda

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 mainstay of the ciné-club, including those of Orson Welles, others, not all films are worth showing at a ciné-club, and
Sergei Eisenstein, Carl Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bu- films can lose their allure after excessive exposure.
ñuel, Satyajit Ray, and Jean Cocteau. The clubs also had The ciné-club also shaped viewers’ taste through stages
a preference for Italian neorealism, American genre films, de formation cinématographique (film education internships).
French avant-garde short films, and short documentaries. Sponsored by the ciné-club federations, the stages offered
One particularly notable element of the ciné-club program- film screenings, discussions, and encounters with people in
ming was its international character. Far from serving as a the film industry. In July 1955, for example, the Fédération
tool in the support of French national cinema alone, as one Française du Ciné-Club invited club directors and members
might expect, the ciné-club actively promoted films from the to spend a week in the town of Marly-le-Roy near Paris, where
United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, India, Russia, and it screened French, Spanish, Japanese, German, American,
Japan. Mexican, and Italian films from morning until midnight.17
Ciné-club programming did not simply entail the dis- An impressive array of people from the film industry spoke
semination of an established canon to all audiences. Vincent at that particular stage, including directors Luis Buñuel, Jean
Pinel, a ciné-club director in the 1960s in Le Havre, empha- Grémillon, Preston Sturges, Pierre Kast, Chris Marker, Alain
sized in his 1964 primer the importance of making program- Resnais, Abel Gance, and Jacques Prévert, critic Ado Kyrou,
ming choices appropriate for specific audiences. “It would actor Gérard Philipe, and arthouse exhibitor Jean Tedesco.
be aberrant to inaugurate a ciné-club d’entrerpise [a club for Jean Renoir and his crew took a break from the making of
factory workers] with the projection of Testament d’Orphée.”10 French Cancan (1955) to come speak to the group, as well.
On the other hand, Pinel noted, Paisan (1946) could be en- The internships give one a sense of the vitality of amateur film
joyed by all and was thus an appropriate choice for launching culture of the period: ordinary people who had no connec-
a club with a bourgeois, student, or factory worker member- tion to the film industry could have an intense, concentrated
ship. The Western 3:10 to Yuma (1957) was a particularly film education experience at a moment in history when film
good choice for clubs comprised of students, rural people, study was not yet institutionalized in the French education
and workers.11 system. All it required was participation in a ciné-club.
In addition to tailoring the programming of films to spe- Careful programming and film education internships
cific sectors of the population, the ciné-club actively pro- went hand in hand with the purposeful presentation of the
moted the screening of certain films and discouraged the film at the ciné-club screenings. For the task of introducing
screenings of others. According to Pinel, the ciné-club direc- the film to ciné-club members and instigating a lively discus-
tor should not behave like a “cultural terrorist,” but should sion about it, ciné-clubs had a trained animateur (host). Film
also realize that not every film is worth showing in a ciné- history’s most famous animateur is, of course, André Bazin.
club.12 For example, The Little Rebels (1955), a film about In the latter half of the 1940s, Bazin was not only publishing
juvenile delinquency starring Jean Gabin as a sympathetic his hugely influential articles on Italian neorealism, Orson
judge, was “uninteresting” and should be avoided.13 In con- Welles, and William Wyler, but he was also making the
trast, Los Olivados (1950) was “important” and should be rounds of schools, factories, union meetings, and ciné-clubs,
shown.14 Pinel also argued that certain films possessed his- discussing films such as Marcel Carné’s Le Jour se lève (1939)
torical importance, but were now dated and therefore to be and Renoir’s Le Crime de M. Lange (1935).18 The typical ani-
avoided, such as the work of Marcel Pagnol, and King Sol- mateur, however, especially in the provinces, was more likely
omon’s Mines (1950), MGM’s adventure film set in Africa. to be a local schoolteacher with a passion for cinema.
Moreover, certain films by great directors were overexposed, If the animateur did not possess the ability to discuss films
including Stagecoach (1939) and Bicycle Thieves (1948).15 If at the level of a Bazin, there were tools to guide him. Several
one nevertheless wanted to show films by Ford and De Sica primers existed specifically to guide the ciné-club director in
respectively, Pinel advised, The Searchers (1956) and Um- the preparation of an effective introduction and the manage-
berto D (1951) were better choices. Echoing the discourse ment of a successful débat. One such primer was written by
in Cahiers du cinéma and other film journals of the period, Max Egly, a specialist of adult education, and published in a
Pinel also noted the problem of an excessive investment in book called Regards neufs sur le cinéma (New Perspectives on
“good taste” or films of “quality” and argued instead for the the Cinema). This book, part of a series of works devoted to
screening of “worthy” genres like Westerns or musicals.16 The topics such as photography, sport, literature, and the French
ciné-club programming, then, clearly reveals the existence of song, was a joint venture of the publisher Seuil and the orga-
a film canon under construction. Some films are better than nization Peuple et Culture. Peuple et Culture emerged near

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the end of the Occupation and was developed by resistance SCREENING CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
figures contemplating the shape of post-war French culture. In 1962, the Ciné-Club des Avant-Premières was founded in
The organization’s basic goal was to strengthen French soci- Paris. The club was loosely affiliated with Arts, a respected
ety by building a post-war culture common to all people, to weekly arts and culture magazine for which both Truffaut
“elevate the cultural level of those from all social milieu, par- and Godard wrote in the 1950s.24 The club chose Cleo from
ticularly the working class.”19 Supported by France’s Ministry 5 to 7 for its inaugural sessions not only because its leadership
of National Education, Peuple et Culture trained people— admired the film, but more specifically because it perceived
through courses, internships, and publications—to “animate” Cleo from 5 to 7 as potentially “disconcerting” due to “its con-
cultural organizations such as book clubs, music appreciation struction, its rhythm, and its themes.”25 The club wanted to
groups, and ciné-clubs. The ciné-club, then, was part of an have an impact on the film’s reception by the general public:
extensive, well-organized post-war initiative aimed at democ- “Here is the perfect example of a film that could have a daz-
ratizing culture. zling career or could just as easily be a terrible flop. In our
In his essay, Egly laid out succinct phases of the ideal own small way, we will attempt to assure that Cleo is a success
ciné-club discussion.20 The débat should begin with the rather than a flop.”26
spontaneous, yet guided, expression of club members’ first The film, a chronicle of the movements through Paris of
impressions. Egly emphasized that animateurs should focus a beautiful, self-absorbed pop singer who anxiously awaits the
on helping members develop the confidence to debate in a results of a medical test, combines an unusual documentary
group: “The task of the animateur is not so much to speak, texture with stylistic playfulness. The film’s narrative retains
but to enable others to speak.”21 Next, the débat should iso- considerable ambiguity: Cleo meets a sensitive soldier near
late the film’s narrative elements (key characters, themes, set- the end of the film who may or may not remain important
ting), discuss the possible “meaning” of a film, and situate to her, and Cleo’s prognosis remains unclear. Critics would
the film in its historical framework. The viewers should then ultimately celebrate the film for its psychological and docu-
circle back to the narrative, pondering the ways in which the mentary realism, its rigorous treatment of temporality, and
film’s style operates in conjunction with the narrative. Here, its fresh way of representing the streets, cafes, and parks of
Egly warned, the viewers should take special care to avoid Paris. Georges Sadoul called Cleo from 5 to 7 a “true modern
the reduction of a film to its subject matter alone.22 Next, the film, profoundly of our era” and saw it as a kind of snapshot
viewers should discuss the film’s relationship to the director’s of the year 1961: “Ninety minutes in the life of a Parisian
biography and oeuvre. Finally, the discussion should extend woman can contain the anguish and the preoccupations of
to related films, literature, and other art forms. a nation.”27 Pierre Billard praised the film’s “psychological
The goals of the post-war ciné-club, in other words, were depth,” its combination of realism and stylization, and its
myriad and ambitious: to reach out to viewers from a wide lack of an obvious “message.”28 Jean-Louis Bory celebrated
socio-economic spectrum, expose them to a range of “good” the film’s emphasis on duration, its “chronological rigor” and
films from a variety of national traditions, genres, and auteurs, its “subjective time.”29 For Claude Beylie, “Cleo is (among
and teach them to formulate and express publicly their opin- other things) the most beautiful film ever shot in and about
ions about the films’ narrative, style, and historical context. Paris.”30 Roger Tailleur wrote in Positif: “Cleo is . . . both the
The ciné-club did not aspire to replace the commercial cin- freest of films and the film that is the greater prisoner of con-
ema in its members’ lives or to promote a renaissance in ex- straints, the most natural and the most formal, the most real-
perimental filmmaking, as had the 1920s ciné-clubs. Instead, istic and the most precious, the most moving to see and the
the post-war ciné-club invested in the formation of an active, most pleasant to watch.”31 It was an international success, but
educated viewer. in the months before its release, the Ciné-Club des Avant-
But how can we judge whether the ciné-club actually Premières wanted to register its support for Cleo from 5 to 7
achieved its goals? After all, there is ample evidence that the and help it find its audience.
post-screening débat often failed. Ciné-club manuals com- After the screening of Cleo from 5 to 7 in early April of
plain about the domination of the conversation by a few lo- 1962, members of the club in Paris and in other French cities
quacious club members and of viewers even walking out after were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of eight ques-
the film, skipping the discussion altogether.23 The traces left tions (see table overleaf).
by the premier of Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) at the Ciné-Club More than 2000 people took the questionnaire home,
des Avant-Premières provide evidence that the ciné-clubs had filled it out within the required eight-day time frame, and
succeeded. mailed it to Arts. Arts tabulated the responses and reported

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 ing: librarian, publisher, bank employee, insurance inspec-
QUESTIONNAIRE tor, silk painter, restaurateur, psychologist, engineer, nurse,
1. Did you like this film? Why? If you didn’t like it, also dry cleaner, interior decorator, writer of radio plays, archi-
say why. tect, editor, and translator. One respondent identified her-
2. Were you more responsive to: self as a “college graduate in English.” Twelve respondents
• the subject? did not have a profession or chose not to divulge it. Three
• the directing? respondents listed “cinephile” as their profession. Some of
• the characters? the respondents later became important members of the film
3. What moment (or scene) of the film is your favorite? community. Serge Daney, who would become France’s most
4. Did the film seem to have slow moments? When? influential film critic in the 1970s and 1980s, filled out a
Conversely, does the film lack a scene (or a line questionnaire, as did Roger Diamantis, the owner of a Greek
or an image) that would have provided for better restaurant who later became—and remains—an important
comprehension of the storyline or the characters? arthouse exhibitor in the Latin Quarter.32 If the socio-eco-
5. In your opinion, will the young woman, Cleo, die? nomic make-up of this particular club does not fully reflect
6. What do you think of the roles played by the male the Peuple et Culture dream of bringing the arts to the prole-
characters in this story? tariat, it certainly reveals the existence of a fairly diverse audi-
7. Do you see a greater meaning in this film that goes ence for unconventional films.
beyond the storyline itself? The general response to Cleo from 5 to 7 was positive.
8. Will you recommend this film to your friends and Many respondents filled out the questionnaire and then
family? added several pages to it, sometimes in the form of a writ-
ten or typed letter to Varda. Many responded to each and
every question, while others left certain categories blank, or
the results in its issue of 18–24 April. The questionnaires dispensed with the questionnaire altogether and simply wrote
were then sent to Agnès Varda, who read and retained a por- a long analysis of the film. Viewers assumed a surprising fa-
tion of them (eighty-six, to be exact). miliarity with Varda. Several asked to meet with her and one
The questionnaires distributed at the Ciné-Club des viewer even invited her to dinner. Specific scenes frequently
Avant-Premières after the screenings of Cleo from 5 to 7 in singled out for praise in the questionnaires include the epi-
April 1962 serve as a record of viewer response to a film per- sode in the hat shop, the long taxi ride through Paris, the re-
ceived as worthy, but “difficult.” While the written responses hearsal with her composers, the silent film-within-the-film,
cannot convey the ebb and flow of the ciné-club débat, they and the encounter between Cleo and Antoine near the end.
nevertheless amply demonstrate that ordinary viewers had in- When asked whether they were more sensitive to the film’s
deed developed sophisticated analytical skills and a taste for subject, direction, or characters, viewers frequently refused
unconventional films. On the whole, the viewers provided to separate these elements and instead expressed apprecia-
startlingly detailed and sophisticated responses, analyzing the tion for each category or for the film as a whole. Here we
film’s style and narrative, and placing the film in the contexts can assume that the respondents had successfully absorbed
of the New Wave and international film history. The ques- the warning in the ciné-club primers about reducing a film
tionnaires provide valuable information about art-cinema to its subject matter or to its themes alone. Likewise, respon-
spectatorship and suggest that Resnais was correct in assert- dents tended not to object to the plot’s relatively open ending.
ing that a “new wave of spectators” had emerged. Most respondents believed Cleo has a terminal illness, but
Immediately notable is the diversity of the respondents’ viewed the process of her transformation throughout the film
professions, especially compared to the 1920s ciné-club gath- as more important than her specific prognosis.
erings, which tended to attract writers and artists. While a In keeping with the advice given in the ciné-club primers,
significant number of the respondents were, predictably, the viewers of Cleo from 5 to 7 tended to comment at length
university students (twenty-seven out of eighty-six) or edu- on both narrative and film style. One student from Paris com-
cators (six out of eighty-six), a wide range of occupations is mented on the contrast between color and black-and-white
represented. Respondents included five secretaries, three stock at the beginning of the film, the play of mirrors and
doctors, two assistant film directors, two accountants, two ad- windows in the hat shop, and the shift in the background
ministrators, two pharmacists, two artists, two journalists, two from white to black when Cleo begins to sing her song. An-
civil servants, two shopkeepers, and one each of the follow- other viewer, a law student from Bordeaux, responded pre-

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 cisely the way the ciné-club primers would want, establishing
links between style and narrative. “The film’s technique is
very adapted to the characters and especially to the spirit of
the author: the excellent camera movements around the
piano with the bizarre musicians . . . the very good scenes in
the interior of the hat shop where the apparent disorganiza-
tion of the camera only shows Cleo’s disarray.”
Perhaps we should be cautious in assessing the extent
to which viewers felt positively about Cleo from 5 to 7. Arts
reported that ninety-seven percent of the respondents liked
the film, but the journal had an interest in emphasizing the
success of the film, due to its affiliation with Club des Avant-
Première.33 Moreover, the people who filled out the ques-
tionnaires knew that Varda would be reading their responses,
so it is quite likely that many viewers expressed an inflated de-
gree of enthusiasm for the film. Yet not all of the respondents
provided positive and lengthy comments on the film. Many
were content to fill out the form in a cursory fashion and
several were quite critical of the film. One particularly dis-
gruntled viewer who identified herself as a “bilingual stenog-
rapher,” wrote that the film was “idiotic” and that she wanted
to be reimbursed. Another viewer, a university student in
Paris, was “bored” by the film, finding Cleo “egotistical” and
the solider “ugly” and “without charm.” Yet, surprisingly,
even viewers who disliked Cleo from 5 to 7 provided subtle
comments about the film’s style, discussing individual scenes
and shots in detail. For example, one viewer who objected
to many things in the film observed: “The film is a kind of
photographic reportage with sound, a cinéma-vérité on a star,
in the streets of Paris . . . in a hat store, the singing star’s ‘stu-
dio,’ and a sculpture studio. It is a visual magazine, a kind of
filmic Elle or Marie France that one flips through, [seeing]
a model trying on hats [and] a female taxi driver recounting
an attack.”
Here, it is as if the viewer is following Egly’s exhortation
to locate connections between films and other kinds of texts:
cinéma-vérité documentary, photojournalism, and women’s
magazines. This viewer even suggested that the film’s style in-
vites a particular viewing mode: one “flips through” the film.
Surprisingly, the viewer’s denigration of Cleo from 5 to 7—he
linked it, after all, to a lowbrow cultural object, the wom-
an’s magazine—coexisted with his admiration of the film’s
settings and cinematography. Cleo’s strolls through Paris, he
noted, evoke those of Jeanne Moreau in Louis Malle’s Eleva-
tor to the Gallows (1957) and the film’s cinematography is
“remarkable.”
Another viewer compared Cleo unfavorably to Truf-
The hat shop in Cleo from 5 to 7. faut’s Jules and Jim (1961), but commented on Varda’s use of
© 1962 Agnès Varda. DVD: Criterion Collection color stock in the film’s prologue, and on specific edits. He

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 complained that the scene in the hat shop is “too much like months have been full of them! Bardot in Vie Privée, Moreau
a romance novel” and he even speculated that a costume in Jules et Jim, Karina in Une Femme est une femme and not
worn by Cleo was previously used in Resnais’s Last Year at long ago, Anouk Aimé in Lola. Cleo adds a character to the
Marienbad (1961). The viewer disliked Cleo from 5 to 7, yet New Wave’s gallery of ‘modern heroines.’”
took it seriously enough to watch it carefully and to dissect Viewers also placed the film in the context of Varda’s
its visual style. own work, citing her first feature, La Pointe Courte (1956)
The ciné-club members’ ability to discuss both style and and the three short films she made in the late 1950s. One
narrative is notable, but equally remarkable is their ability to viewer observed that Varda’s short film L’Opéra Mouffe
place the film in the context of film history. Sometimes, this (1958) helped him understand Cleo from 5 to 7, since both
comparative activity works in a negative sense. Viewers speci- allow us to “enter into the psychological world of [a] woman.”
fied what the film is by saying what it is not. For example, a Viewers were thus able to place Cleo from 5 to 7 in several
university student from Paris distinguished Cleo from Holly- contexts: the French New Wave, film history more generally,
wood cinema, noting the film’s lack of a concluding kiss: and Varda’s oeuvre.
“Everyone was waiting . . . with a sort of conditioned reflex,
for a kiss, like in all American films, which resemble each EDUCATING AUDIENCES
other . . . and then, no. Three little notes and it was over! Ha! The questionnaires on Cleo from 5 to 7 in the Club des Avant-
If you had seen the theater, in which we behaved exactly like Premiers demonstrate that the pedagogical goals of the ciné-
Pavlov’s dog. [It was as if one had] conducted an experiment club had indeed been achieved. The club chose to celebrate
on conditioned reflex . . . The audience let out a little cry as the work of a marginalized filmmaker whose works were un-
if it was disappointed that one had not flattered and exploited derstood as “difficult” and thus adhered to the longstanding
its sexual urges!! This was good; you brought us out of our ciné-club tradition of exposing viewers to unconventional
routine.” films. The respondents wrote of Varda as an auteur, linking
A student from Valence distinguished Cleo from “tradi- Cleo from 5 to 7 to her earlier films and characterizing Var-
tional cinema” for its relative de-dramatization. “The film da’s thematic and stylistic preoccupations. Not only did the
pulls the spectator out of his comfort. If someone asked us viewers possess a context for Varda’s films, they had a broader
what we just saw, we would easily respond: nothing. There is understanding of film history, reflected in references to An-
no dramatic event, no theatrical coup . . . We are offered in- tonioni, Renoir, and Welles. Above all, the respondents were
significant, unoriginal, unlinked facts. And yet we are moved, sensitive to film narrative and style: they wrote of the over-
touched, troubled.” Others linked Cleo from 5 to 7 in a posi- all arc of the film’s narrative and its unconventional conclu-
tive manner to specific films. To the question “Would you sion and provided detailed commentary on lighting, camera
encourage your friends to see this film?” a medical student movement, and set design. The questionnaires thus reveal
replied, “That depends. To love this film, it is necessary, I the existence of a cultivated and confident arthouse spectator
believe, to have loved Pickpocket, for example, and perhaps keenly attuned to matters of film form, style, and narrative.
also Lola.” The student from Valence revealed her familiarity The questionnaires are also interesting for what they re-
with other eras and traditions of filmmaking in her response veal about Varda’s conception of her viewers. It was not com-
to the same question. “As for me, I know that I can place Cleo mon practice to organize test screenings of films in 1960s
from 5 to 7 in my imaginary cinematheque next to Night and France, so Varda stands out for her desire to test the effect of
Fog and A Day in the Country.” her film on the spectators. The questionnaires confirmed for
A law student living in Bordeaux wrote that the tracking Varda that viewers could tolerate ambiguity. “I understood
shots in the hospital garden reminded him of the tracking that one should never underestimate the intelligence and
shots in Resnais’s Hiroshima, mon amour (1959) and the char- comprehension of the audience, despite what professional
acter of Cleo recalled Lola in Jacques Demy’s Lola (1961). distributors and the purveyors of big spectacles say.”34 In her
The depth of field used in Cleo’s apartment reminded him subsequent filmmaking practice, Varda would continue to
of Citizen Kane (1941), no less. Another viewer disliked the solicit her viewers’ opinions in both formal and informal
film’s visual style, but argued that Cleo was a new kind of her- ways, but this tendency reached its apogee in 2002 with Two
oine with links to other New Wave female protagonists: “This Years Later (2002). This hour-long documentary, made as
is a delicious painting of a woman. Corinne Marchard is, I a supplement for the DVD release of Varda’s documentary
believe, the most ‘true’ of the modern heroines. These last The Gleaners and I (2000), revisits several of the gleaners

46 FALL 20 07
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profiled in that feature. Less predictably, however, Two Years 5 to 7—is the result, in part, of the efforts of the post-war
Later pays tribute to the viewers of The Gleaners and I. In- French ciné-club.
spired by the overwhelming number of thoughtful responses This article could not have been written without the generosity of Agnès Varda,
she received to the film, Varda tracked down several of her who granted me access to the archives of Ciné-Tamaris, provided the photo-
graph taken on the set of Cleo from 5 to 7, and granted permission to reprint the
fans, interviewed them on camera, and incorporated them questionnaire filled out by Serge Daney.
in the film. 1. Cited in Gaston Bounoure, Alain Resnais (Paris: Seghers, 1962), 118.
A more detailed profile of the “demanding” viewer in- 2. Richard Abel, The French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915–1929 (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 251–57.
tuited by Alain Resnais in 1962 emerges. This new specta- 3. Jeander, in D. Marison, Le Cinéma par ceux qui le font (Paris: Librairie
tor, nurtured in the context of post-World War II efforts at Arthème Fayard, 1949), 385.
4. Vincent Pinel, Introduction au Ciné-club: histoire, théorie, pratique du Ciné-
cultural democratization, likely believed he had a right to club en France (Paris : Editions Ouvrières, 1964), 36.
5. Ibid.
access the arts, to experience cinema, music, theater, and 6. “La FFCC à la Rue,” Cinéma 62 66 (May 1962): 149–52.
literature, no matter his socio-economic origins. This viewer 7. Ibid, 152.
8. Pierre Kast, “Répandre le goût du cinéma, faire connaître ses chefs d’oeuvre,
tended not to make a living in the arts or have links to the éduquer le public: telle est la tâche des ciné-clubs,” L’Ecran français 18 (31 Oc-
film industry, but nevertheless wanted to view and discuss tober 1945): 15; cited in Vincent Graumier, “Les Mouvements de Ciné-Clubs
en France, 1945–1968,” Mémoire de D.E.A. (Université de Paris X, Nanterre,
films on a regular basis. This spectator understood that non- 1993), 46.
commercial cinema required the support of viewers, and 9. Pinel, 41.
10. Ibid., 79.
perceived himself an actor on the cultural scene, capable 11 Ibid., 164.
of shifting the fortunes of individual films and of having an 12. Ibid., 76.
13. Ibid., 79.
impact on film culture more generally. This viewer had a 14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., 107.
nuanced understanding of the New Wave and some under- 16. Ibid., 76.
standing of world film history, was open to new storytelling 17. René Gilson, Cinéma 56 (7 Nov. 1955): 38–41.
18. Antoine de Baecque, La Cinéphilie: Invention d’un regard, histoire d’une
strategies, had developed a vocabulary for describing film culture 1944–1968 (Paris: Fayard, 2003), 33–36.
style, and was sensitive to the relationship between film style 19. “Peuple et Culture,” in Regards neufs sur le cinéma, ed. Jacques Chevalier
and Max Egly (Paris: Seuil, Peuple et Culture, 1963), 314.
and narrative. In sum, the ciné-club viewer was “active”— 20. Max Egly, “Comment Présenter le film, conduire la discussion dans un
both at screenings of individual films and in relation to the ciné-club,” ibid., 256.
21. Ibid., 254.
larger filmgoing community. 22. Ibid., 261.
This “new wave of spectators” did not burst forth spon- 23. Pinel, 91.
24. de Baecque, 157.
taneously in 1959, any more than the New Wave films 25. Jean-Louis Bory, “Pourquoi nous avons choisi Cléo de 5 à 7,” Arts 862 (28
March–3 April 1962).
themselves did. It was formed over time, in large part by the 26. Ibid.
programming choices and the pedagogical strategies of the 27. “Le Coeur Révélateur,” Lettres françaises 922 (12–18 April 1962).
28. “Cléo de 5 à 7,” Cinéma 62 67 (June 1962): 117–18.
ciné-clubs. The French ciné-club taught an entire genera- 29. “Cléo de 5 à 7 est un chef d’oeuvre,” Arts (April 1962).
tion of university students, factory workers, and lawyers to 30. “Le Triomphe de la Femme,” Cahiers du cinéma, 11–17 April 1962, 26.
31. Roger Tailleur, “Cleo: From Here to Eternity,” Positif, 50 Years: Selections
value cinema as an art form and to view and discuss publicly from the French Film Journal, ed. by Michel Ciment and Laurence Kardish
a wide array of challenging films. The ciné-club’s importance (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002), 73–82.
32. Serge Daney’s responses to the questionnaire are also reprinted in Agnès
extends well beyond the French post-war context. Along with Varda’s invaluable Varda par Agnès (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma/Ciné-Tamaris,
its American counterpart, the film society, the ciné-club con- 1994), 236.
33. Arts 865 (18–24 April 1962).
tributed quite directly to the construction of a canon of film 34. Interview with Agnès Varda, Paris, July 2003.
35. Pinel, 105.
“masterpieces” whose influence persists to this day. Pinel as- 36. “La FFCC à la rue,” Cinéma 62 66 (May 1962): 150.
serted that the ciné-club was responsible for saving certain
films from oblivion, including Ossessione (1943), I Vitelloni
(1953), L’Atalante (1934), and Lumière d’été (1943).35 The
KELLEY CONWAY, author of Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film (Uni-
FFCC, for its part, claimed in 1962 to have contributed deci- versity of California Press, 2004), is Associate Professor of Communication Arts at the
sively to the valorization of M (1931), La Terra Trema (1947), University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Citizen Kane, Il Grido (1957), Cronaca di un amore (1950), ABSRACT The ciné-club was central to French film culture in the 1950s and 60s. Analysis
and Ikiru (1952), as well as “the great classics of the Soviet of ciné-club programming, educational activities, and of questionnaires filled out at the
premier of Agnès Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7 reveals that the ciné-club powerfully shaped
Cinema.”36 That we still watch, analyze, and debate the strat- viewers’ tastes and viewing skills.
egies of American genre films, Italian neorealism, Soviet KEYWORDS ciné-club, spectatorship, New Wave, Varda, cinema audiences
montage films—and New Wave trailblazers like Cleo from

FI L M Q UARTERLY 47
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