You’d never guess that a film this timely was made more than a year ago and is set in 1963 France, but here we are. On the verge of turning back the clocks to when unwanted pregnancies resulted in illegal abortions – if the woman was lucky enough to survive the underground procedures, she still might well go to prison.
So my opening paragraph is heavy-handed and a bummer, right? But the film, Happening, is very watchable, even riveting. And the reason is because it is telling one young woman’s story – actually, a semiautobiographical one. It’s not standing outside a building with a sign and a megaphone. To quote John Mayer, of all people:
“Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing their mind from
the paint on a sign?”
Director Audrey Diwan’s adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s book, won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion prize, not by preaching, but by skillful storytelling. After all, this is a movie – it’s meant to be watched as a form of art. Yes, entertainment. And the film works on that level by giving us a compelling character to follow.
Anamaria Vartolomei plays Anne, a gifted student with a natural talent for literature and writing. She’s smarter than her dorm mates, but, as girls and boys are naturally inclined, she is learning about sex, her body, and the courting rituals that have existed for thousands of years.
The film tells the story in increments of weeks – the number of weeks since her last period. As the weeks go by, it is apparent that she is pregnant and has absolutely no hesitation in saying that her studies and young life are the priority – she does not want a baby.
I will not reveal any plot spoilers – I will say that the film follows Anne in an honest, non-melodramatic and, frankly, unflinching way. You will see what a woman in the era of illegal abortion goes through – physically (I want to say ‘graphically,’ but the camera is more brutally suggestive than actually showing much) and also goes through within a society that would cast her out at best, and lock her up at worst.
No punches are pulled – this feels as real as a film can.
Hard to believe, but here we are…again. On the precipice of those times where a young lady who’s been out of school for a while confides in her professor that she’s had the kind of sickness that only women get. The kind that turns them into housewives.
‘Happening’| 4 out of 4 Stars | rated R | In French with English subtitles | NY and LA now,, expanding nationally May 13th. | IFC Films
