Cleo Film Techniques

Filmmakers use many different tools to help their audience understand the message in their films, and to better understand the psychological nuances of their characters. Some of these tools include acting, framing, cinematography, and editing. These tools can be used to show any range of emotion, in many different ways; extreme close ups on characters to show uneasiness, tears on an actors face to show sadness, fast cutting to make the audience feel rushed, or cool or warm colors to convey emotion. Cleo from 5 to 7, Persona, and Memories of Underdevelopment all offer subtle psychological representations of the characters portrayed. In Cleo from 5 to 7, the main character goes through a transformation halfway through the film, and director Agnes Varda shows this progression very successfully by moving the focus of many shots off of Cleo, and on to her surroundings. In the first part of the film, as Cleo walks the streets of Paris, the camera keeps her directly in the center
They did not have the means to take on “super-productions”. The approach they took was usually light and agile, and they chose subject matter that is directly related to their own reality. In Memories of Underdevelopment Alea used actual footage from the revolution to make up the montage sequences. They also use random events happening around them to better push the message they are trying to get across. One example of this is when Sergio is returning home and comes across a group of people marching the other way. Originally, this scene was not scripted, the filmmakers just happened to come across this group of people preparing for a May Day demonstration, and took advantage it. They simply had the actor who played Sergio walk through the group of people, without any prior planning (189). This scene became very important because “Sergio is always heading in the other direction from everyone else