It deals with the life of Carmen (Mercedes Samprieto), a mature woman submerged in the inertia of her work and her routine life as an art restorer. However, her relationships are not fully satisfactory, taking a turn on the day she visits her son (Carlos Hipólito) and then his wife (Aitana Sánchez Gijón) appears at her house with her grandson.
Stories from the past, voluntary learning and a strong feeling of melancholy dominate this film with a script by prestigious writer/director Mario Camus. This is a passable -but no notable- semibiographical drama with great interpretations, although it turns out to be quite slow, briefly interesting and a little boring. This ¨El Pájaro de la felicidad¨ forms a dyptic with ¨Gary Cooper, que estás en los cielos¨(1980), both of them have a strong autobiographical charge regarding Miro's life .With this decent story, which has a brooding biographical sense, the director Pilar Miró makes her second most personal film, portraying a peculiar woman with many traits of her own personality, who faces herself, others and life with great hardness. The film turns out to be somewhat slow, boring, tiring, and it drags on for a long time, with most of it being spoken in Catalan, which is why it will not attract the majority of the public.
Pilar Miro directs this intimate film, with dissatisfied characters and loneliness, starring her favorite actress, Mercedes Samprieto, she's pretty good as an art restoration expert who suffers a trauma soon after meeting her estranged son, and decides to embark on a lonely journey towards her past. Samprieto is accompanied by a large group of remarkable and well-established actors. In fact, the main entertainment in ¨El Pájaro de la Felicidad (The Bird of Happiness) ¨(1980) is to contemplate the long gallery of secondary characters that appear here and there, while you try to guess the name of the one that will appear next, among these we can include the following: José Sacristán, Carlos Hipólito, Lluís Homar, Daniel Dicenta, Mari Carmen Prendes, Asunción Balaguer, Ana Gracia, Eulàlia Ramon, Antonio Canal, Felipe García Vélez, Josep Maria Pou, Adriana Ozores, Enric Majó, among others.
In "El pajaro de la felicidad" the soundtrack by Jordi Savall stands out, winner of the Gold Medal of the Circle of Fine Arts, he composed an emotional and sensitive musical score. Adding: ¨When I Am Laid in Earth¨ from "Dido & Aeneas" written by Henry Purcell performed by Tatiana Troyanos, conducted by Charles Mackerras. In addition to a wonderful photography of José Luís Alcaine, deserving of the Goya Award in 1994. Therefore, the pic offers a colorful and luxurious photography by Alcaine who was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameramen . Alcaine frequently works with Pedro Almodóvar , Bigas Luna and Vicente Aranda , as he has photographed ¨La piel que habito (The skin I live in)¨ , ¨The bad education¨ , ¨Los amantes pasajeros¨ , ¨Women in the verge of a nervous breakdown¨, ¨Volver¨, among others . Being shot on several locations in El Ampurdán, Girona, Catalonia, Isleta del Moro, Almería, Andalucía, Níjar, Almería, Cabo de Gata-Níjar, Almería, Andalucía, and Madrid.
The motion picture was unevenly and professionally directed by Pilar Miró, following his particular film style. It won some awards: José Luis Alcaine 1994 Goya Winner Best Cinematography, 1994 Goya Nominee Best Sound Carlos Faruolo. Ondas Awards Mercedes Sampietro 1993 Film Award Winner Best Acting. Pilar Miró has a prestigious career both cinema and TV. In 1982 Pilar was designated General Director of Cinema and from 1986 to 1989 was Directora General De RTVE . She was an expert filmmaker of Television series and occasionally for cinema . At the beginning she collaborated in Manuel Summers' screenplays , such as ¨Niña De Luto¨and ¨Juego De Oca¨. Her fetish actress , and alter-ego , was Mercedes Samprieto , whom she directed in ¨Gary Cooper Que Estas En Los Cielos¨, ¨Werther¨and ¨Pajaro De Felicidad¨ , among others . Her film debut was ¨La Petición¨ , getting some successes such as ¨Hablamos Esta Noche¨ , ¨The dog in the manger¨ or ¨El Perro del Hortelano¨, ¨Beltenebros¨ , ¨The bird of happiness¨ , ¨Werther¨ , ¨Tu Nombre Envenena Mis Sueños¨ based on Joaquin Leguina novel and especially ¨The Cuenca crime¨ (at the time was prohibited), this one resulted to be a hit smash and got a lot of money at the Spanish box office. Rating ¨El Pájaro de la Felicidad¨: 5.5/10. Acceptable and decent thanks to good cast , adequate set production and enjoyable cinematographic atmosphere .
