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Essay / Le Bonheur - 1686
Directed by the French avant-garde Agnés Varda, Le Bonheur (1965), translated as “Happiness”, conveys, through the formal device of montage, the promotion of masculine fantasy by objectifying the subjectivity of women in a patriarchal ideology. In her incredibly provocative film, Varda's editing positions the female protagonists, Thérèse (Claire Drouot) and Émilie (Marie-France Boyer), according to the attitude of the male protagonist Fronçois (Jean-Claude Drouot), as interchangeable in their roles domestic, fragmented and impotent sexual objects. Throughout the film, Thérèse and Émilie are perfect examples of female subjectivity in a patriarchal society, as they suppress the understanding of their own feelings and desires and transform themselves for Fronçois, thus avoiding coming into conflict with his "happiness ". For his happiness, François waits for Thérèse, his wife, to approve of this affair because he is completely engulfed in his own feelings and does not see the effect that his betrayal could have on her. In fact, he doesn't even consider it a betrayal. There is a fundamental inequality in his marriage, as Francis has misunderstood his own emotions and desires for the shared feelings that should be part of an ideal marriage. Early in the film, Varda clearly displays classical domestic roles portraying Thérèse as the archetypal wife. and mother, doing her part to make life easy and pleasant for her husband and children. Through a montage sequence, Varda devalues and dehumanizes Thérèse as she goes about her daily domestic routine, diminishing any emotions or sense of personality Thérèse might have or feel. In the montage, Thérèse is fragmented since her chores are shown only through close-up shots of her face...... middle of paper ......al film, conveying through the montage the idealistic story of the fantasies of a man. of happiness objectifying the women he loves in a patriarchal society, dehumanizing them, making them easily replaceable, objects that are both sexual and fragmented. For Fronçois, Thérèse and Émilie are superficial objects, which dehumanizes them, completely stripping them of their subjective identity by taking on their role in his masculine fantasy. Despite a rather strange and disturbing ending, where one woman replaces another, the family continues to live happily as if nothing particularly important had happened. The ending demonstrates patriarchy indeed, where Thérèse and Émilie are completely defined by Fronçois, and the only method of escape is to end their lives, since they apparently cannot hope to be allowed to define their own lives at the within such a patriarchal society..