Ackland Film Forum: “Le Bonheur” (Agnès Varda, 1965)

One of the leading directors of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda made her reputation with Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962), which tells the story of a singer who is waiting to receive test results that may indicate that she has cancer. But it’s Varda’s follow-up film, Le Bonheur, that actually creates a sense of foreboding, as we watch a happily married young couple come unraveled through a series of events that are highly predictable until they aren’t. The bright, overly saturated color in this film, inspired by French impressionism, accentuates the film’s eerie sensibility.

The film will be introduced by Martin Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and associate director of Film Studies.

This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Chelsea Theater (1129 Weaver Dairy Rd Suite AB, Chapel Hill, NC).

Click here for more information on theater pricing; tickets are free for UNC-Chapel Hill students. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event.

About the Series:

Join the Ackland Film Forum on selected Tuesday evenings this fall for Color Triumphant in Film, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. While the natural world is full of color, for filmmakers color is a choice. Recreating color in the cinema required expensive technologies, careful attention to costumes and set design, and an openness to experimentation. In this series, we highlight how filmmakers have used color from the beginnings of the movies to tell stories.

The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.