Happening

Audrey Diwan’s Happening (L’Événement, 2021) is a visceral and uncompromising adaptation of Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, stripping away the nostalgic veneer of 1960s France to expose the brutal reality of life under total reproductive prohibition. Anamaria Vartolomei delivers a hauntingly steady performance as Anne, a brilliant university student whose academic future and personal autonomy are suddenly imperiled by an unwanted pregnancy. The film’s 4:3 aspect ratio functions as a cinematic vice, physically manifest in the frame, mirroring the claustrophobic social and legal traps that close in on Anne as she seeks an abortion in a society where the mere mention of the word is a criminal act. Diwan’s direction is unflinchingly haptic; the camera follows Anne closely, lingering on her body as the primary site of a high-stakes political and physical struggle for self-determination.

The narrative functions as a sharp class analysis, revealing how the illegality of abortion disproportionately consumes the lives of the working class. Anne’s precarious social status—as a gifted student from a humble background hoping to escape through literature—is central to her desperation. While wealthier women might navigate these crises through private connections or travel, Anne’s lack of resources forces her into increasingly dangerous, life-threatening underground procedures. The medical establishment is portrayed with a chilling detached paternalism; one doctor even deceives her by prescribing medication he claims will cause a miscarriage but which is actually designed to strengthen the fetus. This systemic betrayal highlights a society where doctors act as enforcers of state-mandated motherhood rather than providers of care.

The film’s refusal to sanitize the physical reality of abortion remains its most radical act. By choosing to depict the procedure with a steady, unblinking eye, Diwan demands that the audience witness the visceral toll of restrictive laws. The absence of a traditional musical score emphasizes Anne’s profound isolation, turning the sounds of her environment—and her own breathing—into a rhythmic record of survival. The film avoids the “victim” trope by centering on Anne’s intellectual ambition; her pregnancy is presented as a transformative “event” that threatens to erase her potential, making her quest for an abortion an act of intellectual and existential self-preservation.

Ultimately, Happening transcends its historical setting to become an urgent indictment of any society that seeks to legislate the female body. It asserts that reproductive freedom is not a secondary concern, but the fundamental prerequisite for all other forms of female equality. The Venice Golden Lion winner serves as both a memorial to the countless women who suffered in the shadows of the law and an alarm for the present. Anne’s final, silent stare into the camera is a challenge to the viewer: to recognize that the ability to control one’s own reproductive destiny is a basic human right, and reclaiming it is a profound act of revolutionary courage.