“Varda fills her frames with riots of color and nature—like Bonnard paintings come to life, and with an erotic intimacy to match—and choreographs physical passion with unabashed but formally controlled delight.” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker)

Living an idyllic family life—married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse (Claire Drouot), and father to two children—François (Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire’s real-life husband) falls unthinkingly into a torrid affair with an attractive postal clerk (Marie-France Boyer). One of Agnès Varda’s most provocative films, Le Bonheur (which translates to “Happiness”) examines, with a cheery palette and spirited Mozart melodies, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world. Varda herself compared the film—her third—to “a summer fruit…inside of which is a worm.”

The 7:40 screening on Saturday 2/29 is FREE for Members.