Agnès Varda (director) LE BONHEUR [1965] French photo archive

Le bonheur. 1965. Photos. [Paris: Columbia France, 1965]. Set of nine vintage original borderless French photos, varying in size but approximately 7 x 9 1/2″ (18 x 24 cm). Most of the photos have code numbers written on verso, overall just about fine.

One of the classics of the French New Wave, Le bonheur is a deeply subversive feminist look at marriage. At a 2019 tribute to Agnès Varda, Sheila Heti, A. S. Hamrah and Jenny Chamarette included Le bonheur among their favorite of Varda’s films, with Charmarette claiming it as her favorite and describing it as “like nothing else: a horror movie wrapped up in sunflowers, an excoriating feminist diatribe strummed to the tune of a love ballad. It’s one of the most terrifying films I’ve ever seen.” Hamrah called Le bonheur “Varda’s most shocking movie,” adding “it’s deeply subversive and works like a horror film… How many films are truly shocking the way Le bonheur is? I don’t think there are any others.” Heti stated “I don’t have a favorite, but the one I think about most often is probably Le bonheur because it had such a devastating ending. It is perhaps the most straightforward in terms of story-telling, yet truly radical – emotionally radical, come the end… It’s impossible to stop thinking about this ending and what it says about love, life, chaos, and fate.” (Wikipedia)