Le Bonheur

https://celluloidwickerman.com/2014/06/09/mozart-in-le-bonheur-1965-agnes-varda/

Just as Summer turns to Autumn so does Autumn turn to Winter. In the film Le Bonheur by Anges Varda, there is a noticeable change in the color scheme as the setting of the film goes from Summer to Autumn. However, there is a deeper symbolic meaning than just the changing of the seasons, it is that of cycles. When we are introduced to the happy family, it is summer and they are strolling through the woods about to eat a picnic. As the film progresses, the husband falls in love with another woman who isn't his wife. And it wasn't by mistake that the misteress bares a striking similarity to the wife. In fact, in many scenes, it is hard to discern which woman is on the screen. When the movie ends, the wife is dead, either from accidental drowning or a suicide, and the mistress has neatly taken her place, accompanying the happy family on one of their picnics in the woods. This analogy of replacement is further illustrated by two scenes, one of the dead wife and one of the mistresses. In the scenes, the women are doing chores, however, every chore that the late wife did at the beginning of the movie was done either prettier or better by the mistress. It seems that the mistress is, in fact, the perfect match for the husband. However, there seem to be a few things that point to something more sinister. Firstly is the music that is played during the scenes in the woods. It isn't at all pleasant or anything one would expect to hear in accompaniment with scenes of a happy family. It is suspenseful and almost uncomfortable, ominous would be the aptest description for it. The other fact is the ease with which the husband replaces his late wife, in less that one full season she has been replaced and forgotten. All seems well and everyone is happy. However, seasons are cyclical and continue on endlessly until the end of time. And so with both the ominous music and the ease and lack of consequences by which the husband moves from one lover to another, we can infer just as the husband replaced the wife with the lover so will he replace the lover with another. The cycle continues, unbroken, just like the season of the year.