SPOILERS FOR HAPPENING AHEAD. IF YOU DON'T WANNA GET SPOILED, JUST KNOW THIS MOVIE IS GREAT AND A MUST-WATCH
There's no getting around how Happening, a new French drama from Audrey Diwan, is tragically relevant in America thanks to the impending likely overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. Then again, Happening, thanks to it taking place in France in the 1960s, is a reflection that the struggles for autonomy over reproductive rights and the bodies of those with uteri are eternal. They aren't limited to one country or era, they are a disturbing fixture of any patriarchal society. Regardless, even if there weren't real-world events reminding one of the constant attacks on these rights, Happening would still register as an especially well-made movie.
Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) is studying to become a teacher at school and is working around the clock to make every exam and essay. Her whole existence gets thrown up into the air when she finds out she's pregnant. Immediately, Anne wants to get an abortion, an impossibility due to the practice being illegal in the 1960s in Franca. Now Anne has to conceal her body as she tries to procure one secretly. Laws concerned with preserving the rights of the "unborn" are subsequently shown in Diwan's screenplay to take an enormous psychological toll on Anne, as are societal expectations for what makes a "proper" lady.
Watching Happening, I was reminded of a simple truth of movies: scope is irrelevant if you don't have characters to invest in. London got destroyed by a gigantic sandstorm in Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy and I didn't give two cents. I didn't know anybody affected by this event, why should it matter? Similarly, a gigantic smoke being threatening to swallow up Paris, France in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was about as exciting as watching paint dry. But intimate scenes set in a doctor's office or at a family's dinner table within Happening are captivating because I was so immersed in the life and turmoil of Anne. All the pixels in the world are worthless if you don't have a beating human heart to drive what's happening on-screen.
Much of this comes down to the direction and cinematography of Diwan and Laurent Tangy, respectively. Told in a 1.37: 1 aspect ratio (I'm such a sucker for that aspect ratio), Happening is inherently told through an intentionally cramped style of framing, one that immediately conveys the idea that Anne is being crushed by suffocating forces far beyond her control. The camera is also positioned just over her right shoulder, a great way to put the viewer directly at her eye level. There's an intimacy to this and other superbly refined visual details in Happening, all of which combine to make it impossible to turn away from Anne's plight.
The performance from Vartolomei is equally instrumental in making Happening such an absorbing exercise. Tasked with playing a character who can't speak her true intentions or desires out of fear of being thrown in prison, Vartolomei has to convey a lot through subtle means. It's a daunting challenge, but one she handles with impressive skill. The way she communicates so much about the internal world of Anne when the character is standing rigidly still or burrowing her feelings down, usually in response to a new challenge or rift between loved ones, is especially impressive. You can practically hear the tears or screams of anguish that Anne is bottling up thanks to the tiny details embedded in the restrained performance of Vartolomei.
This lead performance is in service of a story told with impressive narrative precision by Diwan. She crafts the experiences of a woman pursuing abortion in this country in this era with appropriately constant instances of immense turmoil. However, Anne does not get solely defined by her misery, which allows Happening to render this character as she is: a human being. Anne, like any person seeking an abortion, is complicated, multi-faceted, and rich with nuance. Diwan's screenwriting and filmmaking preserve all those intricacies, in the process delivering a film whose high quality can register in any era.
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