Synopsis
About to turn 30, with 30 rolls of film, a Bolex, and a sound recorder in her suitcase, a woman (Sofia) decides to capture the domestic day-to-day in the Maison du Bonheur over the course of 30 days. The guardian of this good home is Juliane, an astrologer who has lived in the Haussmannian apartment for over 50 years. Her balconies are drenched with hydrangeas to cheer onlookers and to keep the mosquitoes away. Inside this chest, there is not one but many treasures to examine. Juliane generously shows and explains them all, one roll of film at a time. We traverse the years she has lived in this home through her wardrobe: full of magnificent gowns and shoes; her kitchen: full of delicious secrets; the people in her life: her mentor, De Gaulle’s astrologer. The film is not simply about the objects and memories that the Maison du bonheur keeps but its occupants way of seizing existence the present with utmost pleasure.
A word from Tënk
It's not all about being old; you can also be happy. In her sweet and gentle film, Sofia Bohdanowicz presents us with a most cheerful portrait of a septuagenarian that is not at all mortifying. Surrounded by geraniums and colored hydrangeas, multiplying daily rituals, Juliane gives us a lesson in joy to be taken at any age; a real balm in these difficult times. Shot on 16mm film, which adds to the old-fashioned charm of the character, this film is not without depth. A gentle nostalgia, a presence and attention to detail, an evocation of childhood sorrow; the director's approach is entirely bathed in a sensitivity that transforms her surroundings into poetry and romance. Sofia Bohdanowicz has been interested in and listening to the elders around her for a long time, and it is this admiring gaze, this real willingness to learn from the other, beyond the generations, that creates this quality of benevolent tenderness that infects. Being old is not everything; one can be overflowing with life and presence and nestle in the maison du bonheur.
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
