Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 31, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of The Complete Films of Agnès Varda.

In the wake (figurative or otherwise) of Agnès Varda’s death last year at the age of 90, quite a bit has rightfully been written about this iconic force in both French and global cinema. Varda’s output includes well over fifty credits as a director (including some television entries as detailed by the IMDb), and aside from listing some of her better known triumphs, many obituaries and/or eulogies about Varda mentioned any number of other biographical data points, including her rather unique position as a woman in France’s nouvelle vague movement, her own feminism which was featured none too subtly in some of her films, and her frequently provocative experimental style. But you know what one of the things that kind of fascinates me personally most about Varda? That she was married for 28 years to Jacques Demy, from 1962 until Demy’s death in 1990. That Varda, often a purveyor of verité infused “realism”, whether that be in outright documentaries or at least ostensibly more “fictional” outings, and Demy, a director whose candy colored, dreamlike and at least relatively "Hollywoodized" musicals with Michel Legrand brought a new luster and gloss to French cinema, managed to make a marital go of it for so long is certainly testament to the maxim that “opposites attract”, even if those oppositional forces in this instance played out at least in part in terms of what kinds of films the two were often best remembered for. If Varda's long marriage to Demy is more than enough reason to celebrate her personal life, her professional life is beautifully feted in this rather astounding new set from Criterion, which aggregates an amazing 39 films (albeit some running as short as a few minutes) to provide what is arguably one of the most insightful overviews of Varda's cinematic oeuvre. Perhaps unavoidably, but also undeniably movingly, these personal and professional sides of Varda merge in at least some of the films in this set, including The Young Girls Turn 25, The World of Jacques Demy, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès.

Le bonheur is a probably intentionally provocative film that evidently raised the hackles of many back when it was released in 1965, and it's perhaps hard to reconcile some of its plot mechanics with what many would assume is a subject not to be looked on with "approval": marital infidelity. The film begins with an absolutely idyllic scene capturing a beautiful family in an equally beautiful sylvan environment, with an apparently loving husband and wife, and two adorable children. If anyone ever needed a cinematic depiction of what "happily ever after" might look like, they would need look no further than the opening few minutes of this film. Of course, the fact that Varda is offering "happily ever after" up front in this film may indicate that things may undergo a turn for the worse, kind of like all of those fairy tale characters who think they have it made in the first act of Into the Woods, only to find out that "happily ever after" isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

François (Jean-Claude Drouot) and Thérèse (Claire Drouot) and their children Pierrot (Olivier Drouot) and Gisou (Sandrine Drouot) are pretty much picture perfect in every way, and the love between them is palpable (as might be gleaned from their surnames, this was a real family). But soon enough it's disclosed that François has a mistress named Émilie Savignard (Marie-France Boyer), and that leads to some totally shocking developments which won't be spoiled here, other than to say that the sometimes sanguine French attitude of laissez faire may reach new heights in the denouement of this tale.

Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Le bonheur is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Some prefatory text discloses that this was shot on "35mm argentic color stock in a 1.66 panoramic format, restored by Ciné Tamaris in 2014", with laboratory work done at Eclair. The text states this was a 2K restoration from a 2K scan of the original negative, with color grading supervised by Agnès Varda. As with Daguerréotypes, another presentation whose prefatory text includes the somewhat odd "argentic" descriptor, things can look just slightly blue here at times, though that said, the palette is really rather beautifully lush. The scenes in the park offer some really stunning yellows, and blues and greens are especially vivid throughout the presentation. Reds also pop well, but can look slightly orangish at times. There are occasional signs of age related wear and tear like white flecks, and some of the bedroom scenes feature rather grittier looking grain than the bulk of the presentation. Varda once again plays with "time", including some repeated frames at a climactic scene involving Thérèse.

Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Le bonheur features an LPCM Mono track which, like some other films in this set, begins featuring ambient environmental sounds even before the prefatory text, production mastheads or actual imagery begin. The sound restoration was once again done by the perfectly named L.E. Diapason off of the original 35mm sound negative, and the track supports both the Mozart score and all dialogue effortlessly. In what I'm assuming was a stylistic choice, at times the score is mixed rather on the hot side, making the dialogue almost secondary. Optional English subtitles are available.

Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Agnes Varda on Le Bonheur (1080i; 3:01) offers some brief comments from Varda from 1998. In French with English subtitles.


• The Two Women of Le Bonheur (1080i; 6:10) is a 2006 piece by Rosalie Varda which reunited Claire Drouot and Marie- France Boyer. In French with English subtitles.


• Thoughts on Le Bonheur (1080i; 15:04) is an interesting coalition of people put together by Agnes Varda, who discuss the film in particular and the concept of happiness in general. In French with English subtitles.


• What Is Happiness? offers two shorts with Varda ruminating on the concept:

  Happiness? The People of Fontenay Respond (1080i; 5:53)

  
  

  Bonheur: Proper Noun or Concept (1080i; 1:35)

  
  Both of the above are in French with English subtitles.

• Jean-Claude Drouot Returns (1080i; 10:25) is a 2006 piece by Varda where she follows the actor as he returned to Fontenay-aux- Roses where the film was shot. In French with English subtitles.


• Demons et Merveilles du Cinema (1080i; 4:10) is culled from an archival 1964 television broadcast which shows Varda on set. In French with English subtitles.


• Trailer (1080i; 2:20)

Le bonheur Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a fantastic song by Duncan Sheik called "She Runs Away" that features the line "Happiness ain't never how you think it should be", and that may be completely on point with regard to this film's "bonheur" (happiness). The story here is really downright shocking in a way, but Varda presents it all in an almost insulated manner that arguably makes it even more shocking. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplementary package is very enjoyable. Recommended.