Les Heures heureuses (2019): reparto, argumento y streaming

Released in 2019, Les Heures heureuses is a notable film.

What it’s about. 45,000 patients died in French psychiatric hospitals between 1939 and 1945. A single site escaped this carnage: the asylum in Saint-Alban, an isolated village in Lozère. What happened there for it to be an exception? Retracing several decades in the history of this important site of psychiatry, using precious archival films and the accounts of those who worked there, Martine Deyres answers this question and, in doing so, shows how the political courage and poetic audacity that were practised there contributed to changing medicine and society’s perception on madness. Intersecting in the crucible of this movement called “institutional psychotherapy” were members of the Resistance, artists, doctors and philosophers—including Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara and Georges Canguilhem.

Where to watch. In Estados Unidos you can stream it on True Story and DocAlliance Films and rent or buy it from DocAlliance Films. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Les Heures heureuses page.