Happy Anniversary (Heureux Anniversaire)

By Pierre Etaix
Siddhartha Panigrahi | 2018MUD011

The short movie is set in the context of post-industrial Paris which showcases the
contrasting binary worlds of patience and chaos. The movie shows a simple and
easy plot where a wife is preparing dinner for her husband and herself on the
occasion of their marriage anniversary, indicated by a present which she hides
beneath the napkin. She sets the table and waits peacefully for her husband who
finishes his job and starts his journey home for the celebratory dinner.
The next scenario introduces the protagonist of the movie, the husband who
portrays chaos and hurriedness compared to the peaceful and graceful nature of
the wife. The husband goes through a plethora of hurdles in order to make his way
to home whilst collecting gifts for his wife. The chaos is owing to the huge traffic on
the roads of Paris which followed the vehicular structured or car oriented planning
of the city. The movie comically shows the crisis for parking spaces on the streets
in three different scenarios. The traffic on the road adds to the woe of the husband
when he has to tackle the incoming traffic to make his way to buy the gifts from
different locations. The comic flair of the director is again seen in the scene where
there is a long queue of cars waiting at a signal and the car users are seen doing a
range of activities from solving puzzles on newspaper to washing one’s car to
having a meal in the rear of a truck. This shows the amount of time people spend
in the traffic of Paris streets while going to work or returning from work.
The scene changes to the wife who is impatient and restless due to waiting so long
and reaches a high point on climax where she burns a smoke and ends up having
dinner and wine alone and sleeping on the table. In the final resolution the husband
finally makes it to his house and finds his wife sleeping. The time frame spent on
the traffic on the streets spoils the entire preparation for the occasion and the
characters end up celebrating alone.