Nouvelles Femmes: Le Bonheur (Happiness)
October 14, 2026
In a French Impressionist landscape of sunny blossoms, a blissful husband and wife (Jean-Claude and Claire Drouot) picnic on the grass. Their happiness feels organically grown, part of the natural order. But when Jean-Claude meets a postal clerk (Marie-France Boyer), he realizes he has a capacity for “more flowers, more apples.”
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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
A film-funding opportunity arose, but Agnès Varda would have to write fast. A darkly comic idea about marriage had been “lurking” inside her, and it came gushing out. She summed up the film as “a ripe summer peach with a worm inside,” and began filming. François, a village carpenter (Jean-Claude Drouot), his dressmaker wife Thérèse (Claire Druout) and their darling daughter and son, stroll through an Impressionist landscape of yellow sunflowers, bright evergreens, blue and red blossoms, and picnic on the grass. All is harmony and bliss. Varda believes we discover who we are through encounters with others, not through solitary soul-searching: “encounters make us less unhappy.” Contented family man François feels an added air of euphoria when he encounters the young, modern, single Émilie (Marie-France Boyer), who works at the post office. He’s no seducer, his loving feeling of happiness simply expands to include Boyer, and he wants to share it with those dearest to him. Romantics, feminists, traditionalists and free-thinkers have debated this gorgeous, provocative film for decades.
- Original Language Title: Le Bonheur
- Director: Agnès Varda
- Principal Cast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer
- Country: France
- Year: 1965
- Running Time: 80 min.
- Producer: Mag Bodard
- Screenplay: Agnès Varda
- Cinematographers: Claude Beausoleil, Jean Rabier
- Editors: Janine Verneau
- Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Language: French
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- US Distributor: Janus Films