An exploration into the many forms of divorce: from married couples, to Man and Providence, Man and Nature, and even life and death, Carlsen conjures up the possible breakups that may occur and sets this (very) French production on a beautiful country estate, where the players expose their 'happy divorces'. These are happy breaks in the Machiavellian sense: do what makes you, the individual, content; act out what you want at all costs. This impetus thrusts the characters into a warped Hitchcockian world; emotion flows spontaneously and repression coexists with it. The estate owner, a doctor, and his best friend, a French TV actor married-coincidentally-to the doctor's ex-wife (Bulle Ogier), rescue a journalist who attempts suicide on the property's hunting grounds. The two friends set a running bet-the prize, six cases of Mouton Rothschild 1943 Claret-on whether or not the journalist, who becomes their charge and their prisoner, will recover emotionally and live without contemplating death. Carlsen imbues A Happy Divorce with melodramatic music not only to heighten moments but to delve into the relationship between music and image. Through music he makes the audience aware that weddings and breakups may remain mutually exclusive and at the same time achieve the happy divorce. --Gustavo Lamanna