This is ‘Happening’
French filmmaker Audrey Diwan’s Venice-winning abortion drama is terrifyingly relevant and required viewing.
happening
Director: Audrey Diwan • Writers: Audrey Diwan, Marcia Romano, based on L'événement by Annie Ernaux
Starring: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Louise Orry-Diquero, Luàna Bajrami, Sandrine Bonnaire, Pio Marmaï, Anna Mouglalis, Julien Frison, Fabrizio Rongione, Alice de Lencquesaing
France • 1hr 40mins
Opens Hong Kong August 11 • III
Grade: A
It would be so, so, so nice to say that Happening (L’événement, literally “the event”) was a sad, shameful, out-of-date reminder of a time when women weren’t allowed control over their own bodies and lives, and a movie that only inspired an exasperated, “Wow, good thing we don’t do stupid shit like that anymore!” But it’s not. Director Audrey Diwan’s second feature, based on acclaimed author Annie Ernaux’s 2000 autobiographical novel, is about as current as it gets. The story revolves around Anne, a promising student who gets pregnant and very nearly has her entire future stripped away from her because a bunch of old dudes made it illegal to seek, discuss, or perform abortions; all three could land you in prison. Considering a Nebraska teenager and her mother were just charged with felony crimes for performing an AT HOME abortion – with evidence taken from her Facebook account BTW – Happening has its finger firmly on world’s backwards looking pulse. This is crucial viewing for everyone at a time when basic rights are being suppressed everywhere, with women bearing the brunt of this renewed draconianism.
The alternative to legal abortion
The beauty of Diwan’s film, which rightfully won a Golden Lion at Venice in 2021, is that it demonstrates exactly what the anti-choice camp would rather not admit: no misogynist law is going to stop a woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy from doing so. Anti-abortion laws don’t halt abortion services. They send them underground. And going underground with them are safety, hygiene and dignity.
Happening starts with literature student Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei in a stellar, modulated performance) getting ready for a night out with her girlfriends, Brigitte (Louise Orry-Diquero) and Hélène (Luàna Bajrami) in the provincial French town Angoulême. It’s 1963, though you’d never know it. Diwan is careful to avoid anything that would suggest the ’60s. Not much is expected of girls, and Anne fears being doomed to repeat her mother’s life (Sandrine Bonnaire), but she’s razor sharp and her professor (Pio Marmaï) thinks she’ll go far. But as is wont to happen, and despite the simmering, barely suppressed early-twenties hormones raging at the bar they hit, Anne has been pegged as the town slut because she likes to dance. With boys. The next day, Anne jots an entry in her journal about her period being three weeks late. Diwan’s economical set-up lays the foundation for some classic French social realist drama that plays out like a thriller, as Anne finds herself along on an increasingly desperate and dangerous quest for an abortion. Her BFFs drop her in a heartbeat when they realise what she’s up to and the father (Julien Frison) washes his hands of the situation. When she asks local ladies’ man Jean (Kacey Mottet Klein) for help he reasons it’s a good time to hit on her – she’s already pregnant! – and her nervous doctor (Fabrizio Rongione) tells her she has no choice.
A kitchen apron, not surgical scrubs
Despite being a giant dick, Jean does come through with a name, which underpins the film’s third act. When Anne finally ventures into the not-at-all shady “clinic” run by Madame Rivière – played by the fantastically cast, quasi-androgynous Anna Mouglalis (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) – things go from bad to worse. Explicitly and graphically so.
Happening is a cudgel. There’s nothing symbolic or metaphoric about it, which was likely Diwan and co-writer Marcia Romano’s intent. Without ever using the word “abortion,” the script tightens the screws with each passing title card indicating how many weeks along Anne is, and how quickly her point of no return is approaching. Shooter Laurent Tangy’s verité-style, squarish Academy aspect ratio images get more suffocating with each failure, isolating Anne physically as well as psychologically. The score cuts out entirely during the sequences with Rivière, who demands silence, and the unnerving quiet makes Anne’s ordeal all the more harrowing. Happening is intimate, heartbreaking, infuriating, often hard to watch, sadly relevant and the movie we need now. Against abortion? Don’t have one. But keep your laws off my body. — DEK