Le Bonheur (Happiness) is a 1965 film directed by Agnès Varda.
Francois (Jean-Claude Drouot) and his wife Therese are a happily married couple in the small town of Fontenoy. He's a carpenter and she makes dresses. They have two apple-cheeked young children. Their sex life is good. Everything is fine, really.
So it's a little bit surprising when Francois's eye is caught by Emilie, a curvy blonde who works as a telephone operator at the post office, and rather resembles Therese. They embark on a passionate affair. Eventually Therese asks her husband about his sustained cheerfulness. Instead of lying Francois quickly admits that he's having an affair, telling his wife that happiness is additive and there's nothing wrong with getting some on the side. Therese takes a little while to absorb this, and then makes a fateful choice.
The characters of Therese and the children were played by Jean-Claude Drouot's Real Life wife and children; it was the only film role for all three.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: As they go off to see a movie starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau, Therese asks Francois which he likes better. He diplomatically says "You!". Cut to the locker at Francois's carpentry shop, festooned with Brigitte Bardot pictures.
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: The opening shot is a tight closeup of a sunflower. There are other such closeups of the fauna as Francois and his family have a picnic. The foreshadowing that this idyllic paradise won't last isn't subtle.
- Book Ends: Begins and ends with Francois and his family having a pleasant nature outing. The only difference is that at the end he has a different wife.
- A Deadly Affair: Therese kills herself after finding out that her husband is having an affair.
- Driven to Suicide: Therese drowns herself in the lake after her husband confesses his infidelity.
- Happily Married: Therese and Francois are loving and supportive and have good sex, which is why it's surprising when Francois embarks on an affair anyway. At the end, Francois and Emilie have become this.
- Headbutt of Love: The headbutt of love that Francois gives Therese is undercut by how it comes as he's trying to sell her on letting him have a girlfriend.
- Karma Houdini: Francois suffers nothing at all for driving his wife to suicide. Emilie replaces Therese and at the end everything is just fine.
- Killed Offscreen: Therese drowning herself in the lake is not shown.
- Love Triangle: Francois, his loving and affectionate wife, and his fun mistress.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Francois, his new wife Emilie, and his children walking away from the camera down a forest road.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The non-diegetic score consists entirely of arrangements of two works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, namely the fugue from the Adagio and Fugue in C minor and the first movement of the Clarinet Quintet in A major. For most of the film, they are scored for woodwind instruments, but after Francois has married Emilie following Therese's suicide, the instrumentation switches to a string quartet.
- Remarried to the Mistress: The rather creepy ending to the film has Francois simply replacing his dead wife with his mistress, after Therese kills herself.
- Repeat Cut: The shot where Francois cradles Therese's dead body is repeated several times.
- Replacement Goldfish: Emilie takes Therese's place as Francois's wife, and everyone goes on as if nothing happened.
- Shout-Out: Francois and Therese go out to see a movie that has both Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau—namely, Viva Maria!.
- Talking in Bed: Francois and Emilie have a long conversation while they roll around in bed, about their relationship. Francois says he loves both her and his wife and "happiness is additive."Emilie: You like having two women, don't you?
