Cleo from 5 to 7

Whether you like French New Wave director Agnes Varda's 1962 b&w (with one color sequence) tale about a spoiled, slightly vapid, chanteuse (Corinne Marchand) who wanders the streets of Paris for a couple of hours while awaiting the test results from a biopsy, will depend largely on your taste for a) French New Wave and b) Varda. While Criterion has created a characteristically pristine digital transfer (supervised by the director), the story (interrupted by semi-shocking verité moments of sights such as a man putting live frogs into his mouth) is wafer thin, and the showy camera tricks with mirrors will mostly appeal to FSO's (film students only). Very optional. (R. Pitman)