LE BONHEUR

France | 1965 | DCP | 80 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Agnès Varda
Cast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer
Describing the unexpected bitterness of Le Bonheur, Agnès Varda once offered a provocative and resonant metaphor: “I imagined a summer peach, with its perfect colors, and inside there is a worm.” Despite its wealth of luscious pastels, Varda’s first film in color finds potent irony in these warm and inviting surfaces. The film follows the Chevalier family, initially a portrait of domestic harmony. Yet as husband François (Jean-Claude Drouot) strays from his marriage in the presence of the beautiful Émilie (Boyer), Varda peels away the layers to uncover the worm at its story’s disturbing center. (JM)