4.5 stars out of 5
Hmm, how to get Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito to see this movie? Because they really need to. And yet, are any of them bright enough to read subtitles? Happening is a French film which takes place in 1963, though it may as well be Red State America, fall 2022, because abortion is illegal. We meet Anne, a bright college literature student eager to continue her studies. She is very surprised and upset to find out she’s pregnant from a fling. Anne has no intention to keep the baby. But her society has other ideas.
Anamaria Vartolomei is outstanding as Anne. She is strong, independent, unrelenting. Vartolomei deftly shows the changes as sadness and desperation creep in and build up, while never abandoning Anne’s central strength.
Director/cowriter Audrey Diwan, working from a semi-autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, ramps up the urgency and tension as the weeks add up, giving the film a race-against-the-clock thriller aspect. But much more so, it’s a psychological exploration. We see a fiercely independent person who realizes she needs help. Tragically, when she does ask for help, she finds that doctors are spooked and/or judgmental, and even close friends don’t wish to discuss the situation.
There are a couple of absolutely harrowing scenes to sit through. And yet, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett need to Clockwork Orange it with eyelids pried open.
In the AIDS crisis, we learned that Silence = Death. Happening unflinchingly reminds us that it will absolutely be the same for outlawed abortion, and that when matters become the most desperate, we allies will need to step up.
Jack Silbert, curator