Happiness · reception & legacy
1965 · Agnès Varda
How Happiness has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In 1965 it scandalized French audiences, who couldn't decide if Varda was endorsing or indicting her sunny adulterer — it won Berlin's Silver Bear anyway. Today it's canonized as one of the most quietly savage feminist films of the New Wave, its prettiness read as the trap.
What's debated
The eternal fight: is the film's serene, candy-colored surface a razor-sharp ironic critique of male complacency, or is Varda's cool detachment letting her hero off too easy?
Its footprint
Its sunflower fields, Mozart, and fades to saturated red and blue instead of black make it one of the most screenshotted films on film Twitter and Letterboxd — Varda herself famously described it as a beautiful summer peach with a worm inside.
Where it stands
A cinephile rite of passage in the Varda canon — the 'gorgeous but it will ruin your day' recommendation, and a Letterboxd favourite for its colors alone.