Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Audrey Diwan
Starring: Anamaria Vartolomei, Luàna Bajrami, Kacey Mottet Klein, Sandrine Bonnaire, Anna
Mouglalis, Fabrizio Rongione
"You're pregnant!"
Is there any other combination of two words that provokes such a
polarising reaction? For some women those are the two words they long to
hear above all others. For others they spell the beginning of a
nightmare. If your circumstances line up, having a child can be an
enriching experience, but if pregnancy comes along at an inconvenient
and unwanted time it can spell the end of a woman's ambitions.
Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei), the heroine of director
Audrey Diwan's adaptation of Annie Ernaux's
autobiographical novel Happening, falls into the latter category. 23 years old and studying literature
with dreams of becoming a teacher, maybe even a writer, Anne visits the
doctor after missing her period and hears the last two words she wants
to hear at this point in her life. Having a child will mean giving up
college, shattering her ambitions. Plus, it's 1963. The Beatles are
about to drop their first album. Europe is on the cusp of a social and
sexual revolution. If ever there was a time you wouldn't want to be
burdened with a rugrat, it's the swinging '60s.
As it's France in 1963, a legal abortion isn't an option. Illegal
procedures can be obtained, but you need to know the right people. Anne
turns to two doctors for help. One is compassionate but refuses to
endanger himself by aiding her request, while the other secretly
prescribes hormones that strengthen the embryo rather than destroy it.
Her friends, who act as though they're sexually liberated, are dismayed
at the thought of an abortion. With seemingly no other course of action,
Anne heats up a knitting needle...
Happening shares a similar plotline to Buzz Kulik's 1973
comic drama To Find a Man, but there's nothing comic about Anne's situation. If things go wrong
she could end up lumbered with an unwanted child, a spell in prison, or
irreversible physical harm, perhaps even death. With a menace growing
inside her stomach, Anne might be the heroine of a Cronenberg thriller.
She's frequently pictured naked, but in a far from erotic manner. This
is body as betrayer, as Anne examines herself in close-up, her belly
slowly growing like an inflating bubble set to burst her dreams.
Happening is as close as kitchen sink drama gets to body
horror.
It's likely that the only viewers who will watch
Happening are those of us of a pro-choice bent, but Diwan
doesn't make it easy for us. The abortion process isn't sugar-coated,
and it's portrayed as so gruelling that it may ironically dissuade some
young women from undergoing such a procedure. Of course, this is a
backstreet abortion in 1963, and the procedure has evolved considerably
in the years since (perhaps the film should open with a disclaimer to
this effect?). If you didn't already live in fear of getting pregnant,
or getting someone else pregnant, you may well begin to after viewing
Happening. This might be the worst date night movie ever; nobody is getting any
action after a screening of this.
Present in almost every frame of the movie, Vartolomei is tasked with
carrying the film and delivers what should be a star-making turn in
French cinema, if not beyond. Vartolomei plays the part with a mixture
of determination and resignation. Anne displays immense strength, left
to deal with her predicament by herself with no approving shoulders to
cry on. Throughout it all she attempts to remain upbeat. In one of the
movie's lighter moments she beams as she watches her parents laugh at a
radio drama. It's a scene that will likely resonate with many of today's
young people, the idea of envying your parents, who seem to have figured
out life and attained a level of contentment that seems impossibly out
of reach.
