''Happening'' () is a 2021 French period drama film directed by Audrey Diwan. The film's adapted screenplay was written by Diwan and Marcia Romano from the 2000 memoir ''

Happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...

'' by Annie Ernaux. Set in 1963, the film stars Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne, who experiences the emotionally and physically traumatic process of obtaining an abortion in France before it was legalized. The film also stars Luàna Bajrami, Pio Marmaï, Sandrine Bonnaire, Anna Mouglalis, Louise Chevillotte, Kacey Mottet Kelin, and Louise Orry-Diquéro in supporting roles with cinematography by Laurent Tangy. ''Happening'' premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2021, where it won the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

and received universal acclaim from critics. It was released in French theatres by Wild Bunch on 24 November 2021. It was well received, being nominated for and winning numerous awards at the

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

Lumière Awards The Lumière Awards (), officially the Lumières de la presse internationale, are French film awards presented by the to honor the best in the French-speaking cinema of the previous year. The awards ceremony is organized by the Académie des ...

, and

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

Plot

In 1963 France, Anne is a promising university student in

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...

. Despite having several close friends, she is often ridiculed by other students for supposedly being promiscuous. However, it is stated multiple times that all of the students "want the same thing". While visiting her family in the country, Anne goes to see her doctor. Despite her asserting that she is still a virgin, the doctor informs her she is pregnant. Anne begs him to terminate it and he refuses, telling her that what she is asking is illegal. Anne visits another doctor in the city and also asks him for help with an abortion. He prescribes her an injection, promising her it will induce a miscarriage. When it fails, Anne searches for a doctor to perform a surgical abortion. Later we learn the injection was actually

estradiol Estradiol (E2), also called oestrogen, oestradiol, is an estrogen steroid hormone and the major female sex hormone. It is involved in the regulation of female reproductive cycles such as estrous and menstrual cycles. Estradiol is responsible ...

which, unbeknownst to Anne, helps maintain the pregnancy. Anne approaches a classmate, Jean, for help. He says that he doesn't know anyone who can help her and propositions her for sex, noting there is no risk since she is already pregnant. Growing increasingly desperate, Anne attempts to perform an abortion on herself with a knitting needle on her bedroom floor, which fails. She informs her friends, who previously shared their desires for sexual intimacy, that she is pregnant and is trying to have an abortion and they abandon her. As her grades begin to suffer and her chance at graduating with honours begins to slip away, Anne goes to see Maxime, her "boyfriend". Having previously been told by Anne that she intended to have an abortion, he is shocked to learn she is still pregnant, thinking she could handle the situation on her own. They fight and she returns to school, gaining no support from Maxime for the rest of the film. Jean approaches Anne at night to introduce her to a female friend who has had an abortion. The friend gives her the number of a doctor, explaining that the abortion will be painful and cost 400 francs in advance. Anne sells all of her belongings to pay for the abortion. It takes place in a woman's apartment on her kitchen table. The woman instructs Anne that she will have to be silent so her neighbours do not hear. She inserts a wand and tells Anne that she will start to miscarry in 24 hours. Anne fails to miscarry and returns to the abortionist who inserts a second wand, telling her it is possible there will be complications. Anne decides to go through with the procedure nevertheless and returns to her dorm where she has a complicated and painful miscarriage. Anne is found by a dorm mate who helps to cut the

umbilical cord In Placentalia, placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord i ...

and calls an ambulance. Her condition is labelled a miscarriage. The film ends with Anne returning to university to take her final exams.

Cast

* Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne * Kacey Mottet Klein as Jean * Sandrine Bonnaire as Gabrielle Duchesne * Louise Orry-Diquero as Brigitte * Louise Chevillotte as Olivia * Pio Marmaï as Professeur Bornec * Anna Mouglalis as Mme Rivière * Fabrizio Rongione as Dr. Ravinsky * Luàna Bajrami as Hélène * Leonor Oberson as Claire * Julien Frison as Maxime * Alice de Lencquesaing as Laëtitia

Production

During an interview on 23 April 2019 about her

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

film ''Losing It'', screenwriter Audrey Diwan revealed she was adapting Annie Ernaux's 2000 memoir '' L'événement'' (translated as ''Happening''), stating that the book was "very important" to her. On 29 May 2020, the

Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée The Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (; CNC; ) is an agency of the French Ministry of Culture, and is responsible for the production and promotion of cinematic and audiovisual arts in France. The CNC is a publicly owned establis ...

, an agency of the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...

, announced they would support the film, moving the project into pre-production.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

for the film commenced on 27 July 2020 and took place throughout the summer. The film entered

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

in January 2021.

Release

The film had its world premiere in competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September 2021. Wild Bunch acquired distribution rights to the film for France in July 2021. ''Happening'' screened in the Spotlight section of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It was released in the United States on May 6, 2022, and i
available to watch
on streaming platforms such as Youtube, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 99% of 172 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's consensus reads, "A tough but rewarding watch, ''Happening'' puts a personal face on an impossibly difficult choice and its heart-rending aftermath."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100 based on 36 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Guy Lodge, writing for '' Variety'', praised the film's acting, particularly that of Anamaria Vartolomei's in the lead role that was described as "career-elevating". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''s film festival critic Xan Brooks called the film "serious, gripping and finally honourable" and commended the cinematography of Laurent Tangy, saying that "the picture's tight framing is like a noose around her neck". In an interview with the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', Diwan stated her intention to not make ''Happening'' a period piece, knowing "what my character was going through is now a current situation in many countries." Justin Chang, a film critic for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and NPR's ''Fresh Air'', commended Diwan's choice to not make the film feel like a period piece, despite being a "re-creation of the past", as he thought the film "might very well be a window into the future." Michael O'Sullivan, a reporter and film critic for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', states that ''Happening'' serves as a "sobering reminder that the consequences of limiting access to safe medical care aren't just theoretical but existential." At the time of the review in 2022, the U.S Supreme Court had recently made the decision to overturn ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...

'', which had made access to abortion a

constitutional right A constitutional right can be a prerogative or a duty, a power or a restraint of power, recognized and established by a sovereign state or union of states. Constitutional rights may be expressly stipulated in a national constitution, or they may ...

in the United States.

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Happening'' , list = {{Gotham Independent Film Award for Best International Feature {{Lumière Award for Best Film {{Golden Lion 2021 drama films 2021 films Films about abortion in France Films about education Films about sexism Films about sexuality Films about sexual repression Films about society Films about students Films directed by Audrey Diwan Films with screenplays by Audrey Diwan Films based on memoirs Films based on works by Annie Ernaux Films set in 1963 Films set in France Films set in universities and colleges French drama films French films based on actual events Golden Lion winners Wild Bunch (company) films 2020s feminist films 2020s French films Films about women in France Films featuring a Best Actress Lumières Award–winning performance Best Film Lumières Award winners France 3 Cinéma films