At least he got a sandwich.
Heureux Anniversaire (Happy Anniversary) is a 1962 short film (14 minutes) from France, written and directed by Jean-Claude Carrière and Pierre Étaix.
A man (Pierre Étaix) and a woman are celebrating an anniversary. While she sets a fancy dinner table with champagne and little gifts, the man attempts to make it back to their apartment. However, a series of obstacles, mainly caused by horrible Paris traffic, delay his arrival.
Tropes:
- Alcohol Hic: Eventually the woman, hungry and bored, tucks into the food at dinner—and the bottle of champagne. A "hic" follows.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: The man winds up sitting on the bouquet of flowers and smashing them, when dragging another man out of his car (the other man thought it was a taxi). Desperate for something to bring home to his wife, the man stops at a store and gets a sunflower, which is so tall it sticks out of the sunroof of his car. (Then he later forgets this and closes the sunroof, slicing off the flower.)
- Extremely Short Timespan: Presumably no more than a few hours, as a man tries to get home during a terrible traffic jam.
- Match Cut: From the wife putting a very small present under the napkin at dinner to the husband carrying a much bigger present.
- Riddle for the Ages: What was the present in the tiny little box that the wife put out at the dinner table? All we learn is that it rattles when the man shakes it.
- Running Gag
- How the man keeps getting his car trapped by other cars. Once his car is trapped on the street by two cars parked in front of and behind it, close enough to touch. Another time he can't even get into his car when it's abutted by another car directly touching on the right side and a van touching on the left.
- The man who has to move his car to allow the husband to get out. This second man was in the middle of a shave. We see him repeatedly through the rest of the short, his chin covered by shaving cream, trying and failing to find another parking space.
- Title Drop: Cut short, as the man finally gets home and shouts "Heu—", only to see his wife is out cold at the dinner table.
- Visual Title Drop: The wife has gone to the trouble of printing out a little card that says "Heureux Anniversaire" that she puts in the middle of the dinner table.
