Not surprisingly, many are homeless or impoverished people who can survive only by finding free food. Unfortunately, Varda never quite integrates such introspection with her interest in the gleaners' lives. Instead of fitting into a larger package, these asides feel gratuitous at best and self-indulgent at worst. Additionally, the filmmaker sets up false parallels between gleaning and her shopping excursions. Buying souvenirs in Japan and searching for leftover potatoes are hardly the same thing.
Flowers bloom in the background of almost every scene.
Le bonheur has often been taken for a mash note to its protagonist's complacency, but Varda's style offers some clues as to her real agenda. But that's precisely the point. Nevertheless, his happiness continues. Beneath its sunny surface, Le bonheur delivers a scathing attack on male self-absorption and stupidity, and on the reduction of women to interchangeable objects. Family values and le bonheur march on, heedless of the individuals who are trampled under foot.