Rent Happening (2021)

Powerful, moral abortion drama - Happening review by PD

Audrey Diwan’s film centres on protagonist Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei), who discovers that she’s pregnant following a summer fling (cleverly not depicted). It's certainly a hard watch at times, but wins us over by taking a clear moral stance on its central subject of abortion and remaining deeply attuned to Anne’s psychological and emotional state. It is 1963, when even assisting someone to find an abortionist could lead to jail time, and set at a conservative university in the southwest of France, where the prospect of going to school as a single mother is unthinkable - 'Happening' has a profound understanding of the moral and emotional mechanics that are, often surreptitiously, at work in this environment. The mostly puritanical girls in Anne’s dorm who bully her for being, in their minds, a girl of loose morals are predictably judgemental, but it is the reactions from her friends, classmates, and general practitioner that, while being generally more compassionate, are even more devastating to Anne; there’s an overwhelming aura of fear and apprehension that pervades every conversation about the topic.

Vartolomei, with her steely gaze and implacable demeanour, is never short of compelling, convincingly conveying the young woman’s tenacious nature and resounding inner strength, but also her underlying tenderness and sense of unease beneath this tough exterior as Anne’s situation becomes more tenuous. Diwan’s fly-on-the-wall direction, echoed by a ultra-tight cinematography and naturalistic lighting and sound, draws us into the suffocating immediacy of every passing day. Diwan has noted that she was inspired by the films of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, and there is a similar sense of liberal social realism here - we are sharing Anne’s experiences, rather than watching them from a distance, Diwan marking each subsequent week of Anne’s pregnancy with intertitles, which contribute to a rising tension as an uncertain point of no return quickly approaches. The intensity of this suspense is surpassed only by Anne’s alienation, not only from everyone around her, but also from her ever-changing body. But while the desperate measures that Anne takes are increasingly harrowing, the film avoids total despair by also focusing on the small, informal network of people who eventually come to Anne’s help, and succeeds in highlighting the overpowering stranglehold that then-current abortion laws had on the consciousness of even compassionate, liberal-minded students. But this is not a history lesson - for the film by association manages the more difficult task of speaking to our current moment, where some women are increasingly facing hurdles to abortion access, without being didactic or preachy. Strong stuff.

Powerful Drama - Happening review by GI

This powerful French drama is an impeccably directed and acted film that, although set in 1963, resonates with the issues of today. It's an abortion drama focused on Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei), a gifted student, who discovers she is pregnant at a time when sex outside of marriage was frowned upon and pregnancy a social stigma. The shock she feels at her situation where her future is suddenly at stake and she has nowhere to turn for help, indeed to ask for an abortion is a serious imprisonable offence even for anyone helping her. The narrative follows Anne's struggle to come to terms with her situation, her desperation to get help for a termination and the obstacles she has to cope with not least from fellow students and friends. At one point she implores a doctor to help her and he prescribes a drug that she is told will induce miscarriage but in fact strengthens the embryo. The film delves deeply into the control that society has over a woman's body to the point of insisting on her submission. Anne is determined to resist this. As an abortion drama this is more stronger by focusing on the affected woman rather than the abortionist as in say Vera Drake (2004) and Vartolomei's performance is so good as she reflects on how the pleasure of sex comes with a high price for women and that it is always a risk. There are two scenes involving her two closest friends revolving around their sexual experiences that form a juxtaposition with Anne's one off sexual experience and its consequences. This is an admirable film that has a strong message and it's well worth a watch.

Sensitive treatment of a difficult subject - Happening review by MWDW

The main actress very skilfully displayed the slow burn determination and anxiety that developed during the Happening. For younger generations it provides an accurate depiction of how society reacted to such events at that time