Happiness
Solondz’s third major film (following his debut, Fear, Anxiety & Depression, and the critically acclaimed Welcome to the Dollhouse) follows several parallel storylines, all involving members of the Jordan family. Joy is constantly making the wrong decisions, which only convinces her and those around her that she can’t succeed. Her sister, Helen, an accomplished author and sexually unbridled single woman, is really a caricature of effete artistic circles. Trish, the third sister and model housewife, discovers that the cause of her psychiatrist husband’s frigidity lies in his fascination with underage boys…
Happiness is a breakthrough film about American mores and an ironic portrait of quiet suburbia, whose happy façade conceals hypocrisy and human drama. Using a fragmented plot structure, Solondz deftly lowers the audience’s guard and challenges viewers by depicting a pedophile who elicits a measure of sympathy.
awards
Cannes IFF 1998 – nagroda FIPRESCI / FIPRESCI award; British Independent Film Awards 1999 – najlepszy film zagraniczny (anglojęzyczny) / best foreign film (English language); Toronto IFF 1998 – nagroda Metro Media / Metro Media award; São Paulo IFF 1998 – nagroda międzynarodowego jury / international jury award
Todd Solondz
Born 1959 in New Jersey to a Jewish family, Solondz initially wanted to be a rabbi, but after working as a gopher for the American Screenwriters Guild, he began writing screenplays. Due to problems with producers of his feature-length debut, Fear, Anxiety & Depression, he quit directing for several years, to return with Welcome to the Dollhouse. Released during a pitch of interest in American independent cinema, the film won the Sundance Festival prize, achieved critical raves and box office success. Solondz’s next film, Happiness, confirmed the director’s talent (winning e.g. the Cannes critics’ prize). Each of his new films takes on controversial subject matter. His approach to characters, which he does not judge and does not facilitate judgment by the audience, has been referred to as Talmudic. Solondz considers himself an atheist.
Filmography
1984 Feelings (kr. m. / short)
1984 Babysitter (kr. m. / short)
1985 Schatt’s Last Shot (kr. m. / short)
1986 How I Became a Leading Artistic Figure In New York City’s East Village Cultural Landscape (TV, kr. m. / TV, short)
1989 Fear, Anxiety & Depression
1995 Witaj w domku dla lalek / Welcome to the Dollhouse
1998 Happiness
2001 Opowiadanie / Storytelling
2004 Palindromy / Palindromes
2009 Życie z wojną w tle / Life During Wartime
2011 Czarny koń / Dark Horse
