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Agnès Varda’s 1965 masterpiece, Le Bonheur (Happiness), remains one of the most provocative and visually stunning entries of the French New Wave era. While her contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut captured the gritty, monochrome restlessness of Parisian youth, Varda took a radically different approach. Shot in vibrant, hyper-saturated Eastman Color, Le Bonheur looks like a mid-century impressionist painting but cuts like a psychological thriller. It explores the terrifyingly fluid nature of human affection and the rigid societal structures that define happiness. The Plot: A Picture-Perfect Transgression
The film follows François (Jean-Claude Drouot), a handsome carpenter living in a Parisian suburb. He is happily married to Thérèse (Claire Drouot), a seamstress, and they have two adorable children, Pierrot and Gisou. The family is depicted in idyllic terms; they picnic in the woods on weekends, adore each other, and share a comfortable, affectionate home life.
Today, Le Bonheur stands as a masterclass in cinematic subversion. It proves that horror does not always live in the dark; sometimes, it hides in plain sight, bathed in brilliant sunshine, wrapped in the gorgeous colors of a summer afternoon.
Upon its release, Le Bonheur premiered at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Jury Grand Prix. However, its true legacy has solidified over time. Modern critics have reframed it as a landmark of feminist cinema and a shocking horror movie. le bonheur 1965
The narrative of Le Bonheur follows François (Jean-Claude Drouot), a handsome, young carpenter who lives a seemingly idyllic life in the Parisian suburbs. He is deeply in love with his beautiful wife, Thérèse (Claire Drouot), a dressmaker, and their two radiant children. (In a brilliant casting choice that blurs the line between fiction and reality, Varda cast Drouot’s real-life wife and children).
Often hailed as the “Grandmother of the French New Wave,” Agnès Varda was already a formidable force in cinema by 1965 . Her debut feature, La Pointe Courte (1954), predated and anticipated the stylistic innovations of the Nouvelle Vague, and she followed that success with the critically acclaimed Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) . A photographer by training, Varda brought a painter’s eye to filmmaking. This background would prove instrumental in crafting the visual language of Le Bonheur , a film she described as a deceptive piece of fruit: “I imagined a summer peach with its perfect colors, and inside there is a worm” .
Unlike a traditional melodrama, François experiences no guilt, angst, or internal conflict. To him, love is an expandable resource. He famously explains his philosophy to Thérèse during a picnic, comparing his happiness to an orchard: he already had a wonderful orchard, and now he has found another tree, which simply means more fruit. He believes his affair only increases his capacity to love his family. Thérèse listens, smiles, and accepts his explanation. They make love. But while François naps, Thérèse walks to a nearby lake and drowns.
– A sharp 2020s re-review might contrast with contemporary polyamory discourse, noting that François never lies but also never asks his wife what she wants. His "honesty" is another form of dominance. This public link is valid for 7 days
The film’s controversial final act sees François mourning briefly before marrying Émilie. Émilie steps into the role of mother and wife, and the "happiness" resumes. The film ends with the new family picnicking in the woods, looking as content as the original family did at the start.
Le Bonheur was controversial upon release, with some critics missing the irony and taking the story as an endorsement of polygamy or a trivialization of death. However, it has been re-evaluated as a vital work of feminist cinema.
Le Bonheur was Varda's first feature in color, a decision she used to devastating effect. The film's visual language is a direct contrast to its thematic heart, creating a constant, unsettling irony. The cinematography, by Claude Beausoleil and Jean Rabier, bathes every frame in the saturated, vibrant hues of a post-Impressionist painting, with cinematographers calling the look "the muted pastels and luxuriant soft-focus". Flowers, sunlight, and nature are ever-present, creating a vision of earthly paradise. Varda was directly inspired by the pastoral paintings of the French Impressionists and Jean Renoir's Picnic in the Grass .
Varda’s masterstroke in Le Bonheur (which translates to "Happiness") is her deliberate use of a joyous aesthetic to tell a tragic story. Can’t copy the link right now
In 1965, at the height of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda unveiled a film that would forever alter the landscape of French cinema— Le Bonheur ( Happiness ) . With its radiant colors, the playful strains of Mozart, and a plot that defied every conventional morality, Varda created what critics have since called a “stealth bomb feminist film” . To date, the film stands as a radical exploration of love, desire, and the oft-unquestioned concept of happiness itself.
The film exposes how society views women not as unique individuals, but as functions within a patriarchal structure. Thérèse is the perfect wife: she cooks, cleans, sews, and cares for the children, all while remaining sexually desirable and emotionally compliant. When she dies, Émilie assumes the exact same function.
When Le Bonheur premiered at the Venice Film Festival, audiences were outraged. Critics walked out. One Italian journalist called it "a fascist film." Others accused Varda of justifying murder. The irony is that Varda was doing the opposite: she was holding up a mirror to a society that already believed a man could have his cake and eat it too.
, which reinforces the film’s deceptive surface of classical harmony. 4. Legacy and Reception