. . . this one came as part of the 4 BY AGNES VARDA set by Criterion, and has quickly become my favorite new-to-me film so far this year . . . as the movie begins, Therese, a seamstress, and Francois, a carpenter, are walking through impossibly beautiful woods, filled with flowers, with their two children - you think Varda is using these pretty pictures in the same way Bo Widerberg would in his ELVIRA MADIGAN (1967), to show us pretty pictures and/or to express the love between these characters in a rather boring way; once we return to the city, it seems Varda has painted every surface, color coded every set and costume, all to show the beauty of their life together . . . things take a turn when Francois meets a young postal worker, begins an affair, and believes he can love both woman equally, they will both understand, they will all be "happy" . . . it is when Francois visits the young woman's bare apartment we finally realize the look of this film has been expressing the interior psychology of these characters, their view of their world (a bit like Antonioni did in his RED DESERT [1964]), rather than emulating the look of a Hollywood studio musical (as Varda's husband Jacques Demy did around the same time with his THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG [1964)] to give them a setting in which to act out their love story; we soon enter Chabrol terrority as this film draws to a chilling, very creepy conclusion, filled to the brim with irony and cynicism - at least that is what we saw; apparently when the film was released it was quite a topic of discussion as many people saw the ending differently . . . Varda is a master craftsman - this film is well shot and the editing is full of interesting choices; hopefully, this one is available individually from one of the rental outfits so those who are interested can take a chance without spending the big bucks - although the set is certainly worth the cost . . .