NEW YORK, July 7, 2016— On Friday, July 22, Films on the Green will present the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or-nominated film Cleo from 5 to 7. Agnès Varda’s 1962 comedy-drama captures Paris of the 60s while tracing a frantic singer (Corinne Marchand) pacing about as she awaits critical medical test results. The nearly-real-time New Wave masterpiece, which divides the hours from 5pm to 7pm over 90 minutes of film, features a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Crafted with “a documentarist’s eye mixed with a painter’s” (Time Out), Cleo from 5 to 7 is an audacious work of cinéma vérité that manipulates time, space, and genre in ways that were vastly original at the time. It beautifully captures Paris’ unique natural light and was filmed at notable locations in the European capital, including the Pont Neuf, Boulevard Raspail, and Parc Montsouris.
Cleo from 5 to 7 portrays the protagonist’s transition from a dithering child to an empathetic human and touches themes of existentialism and morality. Its strong female protagonist invites a feminist interpretation on the role of women and images of women in French society. Summed up as “an hour and a half in the life of a gorgeous, possibly dying chanteuse” (Telegraph, Tim Robey), the film is a bold achievement of its era that offers profound and sensitive commentary on life that to be relished by any and all viewers.
The screening will take place on Friday, July 22nd at 8:30pm at Tompkins Square Park. The film is in French with English subtitles and is free and open to all.
DJs from WNYU, New York University’s radio station, will play French tunes prior to the screening.
Friday, July 22 | 8:30 pm – Tompkins Square Park
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (CLEO DE 5 A 7)
with Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller
1962 | Comedy-Drama | UR | 1h30 | France-Italy
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cleo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
The festival offers this year a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity.
A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Paris and its surrounding suburbs.
All films are shown with English subtitles. Screenings begin at 8:30pm, except the Columbia screening, which begins at 7:30pm.
June 7 – Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue): Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, preceded with The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse
June 10 – Washington Square Park: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Yves Robert
June 17 – Washington Square Park: Air of Paris by Marcel Carné
June 24 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Subway by Luc Besson
July 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): The 400 Blows by François Truffaut
July 8 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci
July 15 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): Un Flic by Jean-Pierre Melville
July 22 – Tompkins Square Park: Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda
July 29 – Tompkins Square Park: Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric Rohmer
Sept. 8 – Columbia University (at 116th St): Girlhood by Céline Sciamma
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation would like to thank Films on the Green’s 2016 official sponsors: Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde.
Tandem Paris-New York 2016 is a large-scale transatlantic cultural exchange between Paris and New York. From June through October 2016, cultural institutions in New York and Paris will present an extraordinary selection of events in a variety of cultural disciplines including music, dance, cinema, literature, theatre, the visual arts, language, gastronomy, and digital innovation from the partner city. Tandem Paris – New York 2016 is organized by the City of Paris and the French Institute, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Embassy of the United States of America in France, with the support of the City of New York.
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French American exchange around literature and the arts.
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. FACE Foundation (French-American Cultural Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the state of New York.
NYC Parks is the steward of approximately 29,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 650,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.