That Happy Couple

PostED ON OCTOBER 12

Directed in 1951, That Happy Couple by Luis Garcia Berlanga and Juan Antonio Bardem is a gentle comedy that portrays the state of a young couple destined for marriage and prey to the stuttering privileges of early consumer society.

This affable film is the Spanish version of the quest for simple pleasures for two by modest people. It is similar in theme and grace to Antoine & Antoinette (1947) or Rendezvous in July (1949) by Frenchman Jacques Becker. The rebirth of European societies through the prism of the simple couple, after the Second World War, is a way of believing that everything can be possible again. This is especially true for Spain, which was in the midst of the Franco period. 

Ce couple heureux, 1951

The young pair in That Happy Couple seem to want to continue fiercely staring into each other's eyes, as a passive, yet formidable way of fighting the tyranny of the Spanish government of the time. Berlanga and Bardem film the minute feelings and sensations, the moments of awkward shyness, the tiny infatuations, the modest popular entertainment of a screening at the local movie theatre, or a meal at the restaurant during which the young bride sneaks off her shoes and places her small feet on her husband's. A brief, sensual, secretive vision that goes against Franco's morality and does a lot of good.

Virginie Apiou

Screenings :

That Happy Couple by Luis García Berlanga et Juan Antonio Bardem (Esa pareja feliz, 1953, 1h22)
UGC Confluence ma12 18h45