Le Bonheur

Agnes Varda, 1965
Less movement of camera here. The interest in the framings come with again a few compartmentalising shots, faces as one parts of the shot that are racked in and out of focus with signs, with messages in this utopian-like fantasy. Also of formal note are the fade-ins and outs to red, blue, and yellow, the use of these filters further creating a Demy-like idea of a toy reality, a saturated reality that seems sinister but refuses to pay out on that behalf.
This film is creepy, and it is, frankly, absolutely ice-cold. In its complete lack of conflict it manages to make the viewer's heart run cold as they expect constantly a horror that for so long fails to materialise. When it does, the presentation of it stabs at one; and what follows after that, for its simpleness, again its lack of conflict; strikes one as insane, a sharp blade through the consciousness. But in presenting 'Happiness', or is it just the diabolic, in this manner, one is forced to engage with this film at a distance. It is really terrific filmmaking; at once a dissecting look, it is able to consider that own dissection at the same time.