DEATH AND THE MAIDEN
An attractive, vulnerable young chanteuse floats through two hours of life in Paris. She’s eye candy for men, but the film was made by another attractive young woman who makes a woman’s self awareness of beauty a recurring theme.
What’s challenging for viewers is that all the important details of her life are sketched out in a three minute tarot card reading at the very beginning - and you must pay close attention. Being skeptical of such things, I let it slip by on first viewing. Later, when I realized that the psychic was actually a narrator laying down background for the story, I had to rewatch that section four times to catch every detail. Without it, you won’t comprehend the two major relationships that will soon be ending.
A widowed older woman adopted her as something like a daughter and then introduced her to a businessman who became her lover. He kick started her career as a popular singer. BTW, the “5 to 7” in the title refers to the hours between work and family when adulterous French men customarily visit their mistresses - which is indeed when this lover visits Cleo.
At the end of the two hours, she is scheduled to receive the results of her biopsy. Does she have cancer? The fortune teller reads her palm and concludes she is doomed. But maybe all that’s doomed is her life as a woman/child protected but also used by others. The protagonist does a lot of traveling through Paris in those two hours - and each place she stops seems to offer a lesson. Her art model friend teaches that naked bodies can be thought of just as shapes. The model’s boyfriend plays a short movie that teaches things are good or bad according to how we choose to see them. The young man in the park teaches her about a more mutual kind of love. And yes, he is a soldier - the Mars who connects with the Venus/Astarte card from the Tarot. And these two hours occur on June 21, the day that the astrological sign of Gemini becomes Cancer.
So there’s a sense that this is a fable about archetypes following patterns.as ancient as the seasons. Is there a happy ending? Well…. Cleo’s anxiety does abate despite the diagnosis that requires treatment. And she is looking into a man’s eyes as possibly she has never done before.
But the fortune teller did read her palm as doom - and she has yet to be proven wrong
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Note: *The fortune teller uses two different decks of cards, picking out possible connections in each to compile an ongoing story. The second deck is the older one, the “Marseilles”, with the final card picked being the “death card” (#XIII). Dreadful but as well designed as the windows in a Medieval cathedral.
And if you ask Google AI
“ what is the best depiction of a tarot card reading in a movie?”
you will read what makes this one so good.
This is the kind of film I look forward to viewing periodically throughout what remains of my life. I’m pretty sure there is much more to discover through all its moments, gestures, and meanings. The texture is as dense as a Bruegel painting - and it’s quite a tour through the bustling streets of Paris.
The film centers on the details of one person’s life - but it’s not really about her. She is a tiny speck on an enormous canvas. Whether she lives or dies is inconsequential..
