--- title: "Cléo from 5 to 7: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cleo-from-5-to-7/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/cleo-from-5-to-7" critics_score: 83 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962): what the critics said Critics' score 83 from 9 reviews: 8 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are almost uniformly warm. Most critics place the film among the key works of the French New Wave and praise Varda’s Paris above everything else: the streetscapes shot in natural light, the overheard fragments of city life, and the way one woman’s anxious two-hour wait becomes a way of looking at everything around her. Jean Rabier’s photography is singled out more than once, and several notices admire how freely Varda handles time, space, colour and genre, including the playful film-within-a-film. Reservations are thin and the spread is narrow, with most scores clustered in the eighties and nineties. The Evening Standard is the coolest of the modern notices, valuing the film chiefly as a record of a vanished era, while Slant notes that it resists being claimed as either a feminist or an anti-feminist work. The single mixed review, Bosley Crowther’s for The New York Times in 1962, is the only one from the film’s first release, and its reasoning is not available to us. ## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson Rating 4/4. 12 July 2003. The critic finds the film a lively, intellectually rich work that resists easy feminist or anti-feminist categorization. He especially praises Varda’s vivid compositions and distinctive vision of early-1960s Paris. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/cleo-from-5-to-7/) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 March 2010. The review praises the film as a brilliant, audacious achievement of the French New Wave. It singles out Varda’s inventive manipulation of time, space, colour and genre. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cleo-5-7-review/) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2002. Phipps praises the film as a key work of the French New Wave and a brilliant example of Varda’s filmmaking. He singles out how Varda uses Cléo’s anxious wait to reveal the world around her and her changing sense of self. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/cleo-from-5-to-7-dvd-1798194727) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 April 2010. Bradshaw calls the film a brilliant, pioneering work of the French New Wave. He praises its beautiful, thrilling Paris streetscapes and the way the tarot scene and overheard city fragments build atmosphere. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/cleo-from-5-to-7-review) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 9 October 2010. The Independent’s capsule is warmly positive about Varda’s film. It singles out her technical virtuosity and the film’s playful film-within-a-film. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-cleo-from-5-to-7-for-retail-amp-rental-artificial-eye-2103001.html) ## Time Out — Wally Hammond Rating 4/5. 27 April 2010. The review is positive about Varda’s film. It singles out the beauty of Paris’s natural light, enhanced in the new print. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/cleo-de-5-a-7) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The piece is positive about Varda’s film, calling it a document of a lost-past era. It praises Jean Rabier’s vivid, intense cinematography of Paris. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/spoiled-singer-in-cleo-from-5-to-7-7419699.html) ## The New York Times — Bosley Crowther Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 5 September 1962. The review’s verdict and specific praise or criticism are unavailable in the blocked page. No readable discussion identifies what the critic singled out. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1962/09/05/archives/screen-a-french-new-wave-dramacinema-ii-introduces-cleo-from-5-to-7.html) ## Eye for Film — Jeff Robson Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 2 April 2010. Robson calls the film an astonishing debut and a significant work, warmly recommending it to both newcomers and returning viewers. He especially praises Varda’s vivid, impressionistic portrait of Paris and Corinne Marchand’s convincing character journey. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/cleo-from-5-to-7-film-review-by-jeff-robson) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/cleo-from-5-to-7.md