Another gem from the recent Alliance Francaise Film Festival getting a well deserved general release is HAPPENING.
This is the story of Anne, a young woman who decides to terminate an unwanted pregnancy to finish her studies and escape the social constraints of a working-class family.
Set in France in the early Sixties where and when abortion was against the law, HAPPENING is a journey through weeks as Anne ponders her predicament, seeking support from the sperm donor and her cohort of besties. Neither is forthcoming. And help from the medical profession is not just met with refusal but with wilful, non consensual prescription of pregnancy enhancing potions.
Director Audrey Diwan has adapted Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel with an unflinching regard to a law that forbade the procedure but punished anyone concerned.
It follows Anne’s everyday life as a student from the moment she waits for her period in vain until her pregnancy has been terminated. It conveys the horror of time passing, the dread of impending deadline, and the disarray and discouragement when solutions are offered and fail. But it also shows determination to see things through to the end, through adversity and heightened anxiety, not mention physical trauma.
Audrey Diwan does not shy away from showing the mental tensions and mechanical options of abortion in those dark times it in all its brutal reality but probably justified because such disturbing images can make us aware of the horrors that were perpetrated on women’s bodies.
Anamaria Vartolomei is quietly, expressively exquisite as Anne, and rightly dominates every frame.
HAPPENING is a tough film but an immersive one, a film that will generate discussion and debate, and that’s a healthy, happening thing.
