A Glimpse of Happiness

In making Un Instant de Bonheur [A Moment of Happiness], I tried to show the tension that exists between each individual person's search for happiness and the collective good. The goal of this film is thus to ridicule some of the moral prohibitions of our current world through the murderer character and that of his “ apprentice.” This approach leads to an absurd questioning of the place of humor in the context of a succession of dramatic situations (murders, violence, etc.). This film, therefore, is not a moralizing fable, nor even an exact reflection of certain excesses in our society. It is the story of two men who, during their adventure together, will go towards what is Best (individual) by committing Evil (collective).

It is thus a black comedy which aims to illustrate the absurdity of the perpetual quest for happiness set up as a standard by the contemporary world. Indeed, through these two characters who are opposites in everything (age, social background, political convictions), this film's point of view portrays the moment when the trajectories of these two beings cross and they meet. As in Bouvard and Pécuchet, it is through the figure of the Other, understood as the reflection of a differentiated ego, that an individual perceives and constructs himself as a singular person. Together, Ben and Jean-Pierre will therefore live and further themselves as beings striving for happiness by… destroying the lives of other people.

In addition to this desire to show a possible way to attain happiness through the absurd, there was the goal to make a funny film - just plain funny - as inspired by the humor that we find in the flowery dialogues of Bertrand Blier or Jean Yanne. And even though I knew that I couldn't count on Jean-Pierre Marielle to take on the lead role, I still thought of him when I wrote some of the lines… those of "my" Jean-Pierre, the talkative butcher.
Thanks to this anachronistic character, I was consequently able to construct an occasional implied pungent criticism of our excesses and convictions of those who are nowadays commonly called “boomers.” In other words, I also wrote this film to take a stance against reactionaries and the racism's absurdity. And that is why it is a black comedy.

Un instant de bonheur is therefore a film with a searching screenplay, of course, but in preparing it, I also focused my efforts on photography. Symmetry in the images, breaks in the rhythm, still shots conceived as paintings, recourse to hip-hop editing, changing lights, costumes evolving with the mood of the characters: the idea was to make the verb and the form, the futile and the essential, the laughter and the drama coexist in the same project.