Happening

Artful and socially resonant, Happening is one of the most poignant and moving films of the year.

A film of international importance, told with empathy, sincerity and anger.

It’s brutal in spots, but especially vital to watch right now.

the film, calibrated in passing weeks, closely tracks Anne’s efforts – greatly circumscribed and increasingly desperate – to choose her own future.

Anamaria Vartolomei’s lead performance is necessarily and intensely physical—and subject to some harrowing bodily choreography in the homestretch—but what binds us to her is a sense of the perceptive, gifted writer trapped behind weary, terrified eyes.

Not a moment feels didactic, and Anne never seems like a case study. Instead, the film thrums with the practical resolve of a young woman desperate to begin her own life before creating another.

Happening is a bravura piece of filmmaking. It is executed cleanly, precisely, without shying away from anything but without dwelling on it either.

Diwan’s adaptation is unique for its unflinching resolve to show the callousness of men (the intransigent doctors and exploitative men), the inadequacies of social structures, and the need for solidarity amongst women.

It isn't the best film depicting the subject; however, it is an essential watch, now more than ever before.

[Never] gives into the powerful didactic or melodramatic forces … with director Audrey Diwan retaining a measured, unflinching focus. That carries over into [Anamaria] Vartolomei's understated performance.