X
- 2022
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 40 m
- 2022
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 40 m
Summary France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront sha...
Directed By: Audrey Diwan
Written By: Marcia Romano, Annie Ernaux, Anne Berest, Alice Girard, Audrey Diwan
- 2022
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 40 m
- 2022
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 40 m
Happening
7.4
Where to Watch
Summary France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront sha...
Directed By: Audrey Diwan
Written By: Marcia Romano, Annie Ernaux, Anne Berest, Alice Girard, Audrey Diwan
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 36 Critic Reviews
86
100% Positive
36 Reviews
36 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 36 Critic Reviews
86
100% Positive
36 Reviews
36 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This is a heavy-duty topic but rather than lecture or make an angry or ideological film, Diwan works here with restrained and even slightly distant tone, focusing on the character of Anne and her determination to control her own life.
Diwan’s reflective, quiet tone only highlights the sheer dread of this situation, and shows that restriction and taboos about such issues only makes this world a more cruel and terrifying place. With Happening, Diwan has crafted a horror story that is becoming a haunting and very real possibility.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
7.4
77% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
9% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
7.4
77% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
9% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Just as '4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days' and "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always,' 'Happening' reminds us of the importance of abortion being legal and safe. In this astounding film about a french girl in the 60s exhausting her options to get an abortion so she can follow a professional life, director Audrey Diwan delivers a raw tale of determination and suffering. Also, Anamaria Vartolomei shines as the protagonist, a bright who's left alone in her ordeal. It's beyond me how this young actress makes you care just with her deep blue eyes. A near masterpiece, 'Happenning' should be seen by those guys in the Supreme Court who abolished Roe v. Wade.
Report
While her aesthetic may boast some grander flourishes than Hittman’s neorealism, there is nevertheless a vérité style to Diwan’s approach that places us right up against Anne for the majority of the film — a tight, boxed aspect ratio leads to the feeling of the walls closing in, her panic setting in just underneath the surface, observed in oft-used closeups of Vartolomei’s expressive face.
Happening is a visceral, confronting experience.
Happening is often a tough watch, compassionate but brutally honest, and almost breathless in its chronicle of a struggle that has obviously stayed with the author for decades.
To call it a difficult watch would be an understatement; it often feels, in its stark honesty, like a horror film.
When I read this film had its brutal moments, I actually think it was restrained to a certain extent, not that it had to be a shocking experience or anything like that, but it's inevitably questionable why a dramatization of this topic should show you a reality that many prefer to ignore as long as the problem doesn't affect them directly. Happening focuses more than anything else on loneliness. The tremendous loneliness of its lead character as her pregnancy begins to grow in her belly and her options begin to run out, because as she learns, the inevitability of time becomes a crucial enemy to the situation she ends up resorting to. This is an excellent film that unfortunately brings back the question of when society will understand that women should not be forced to carry anything inside their bodies against their will for whatever reason you may find.
Report
Only one thing interested me: In which scene did all those people faint? Abortion scene or toilet scene? Because Happening nothing adds new to this kind of movie except the toilet scene. The toilet scene is "the scene" that makes the movie significant. Never saw something like that. But I read that most people fainted on the abortion scene. Probably those people didn't watch 2014, The Tribe. The movie has the most intense abortion scene which gave me the goosebumps. Long story short... Happening has the same idea as "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" but adds nothing to the story better than its example. The Toilet scene was a shocker, yes. But unfortunately has nothing special more than that. At least for me. Movies have different meanings to its audience. For those who suffered something like this, it could be a masterpiece.
Report
Production Company
Rectangle Productions,
France 3 Cinéma,
Wild Bunch,
Srab Films,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
France Télévisions,
La Région Île-de-France,
Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Pôle Image Magelis,
Département de la Charente,
Palatine Étoile 18,
Cofinova 17,
Cofinova 16,
Société des Producteurs de Cinéma et de Télévision (Procirep)
Release Date May 6, 2022
Duration 1 h 40 m
Rating R
Genres
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 2 Wins & 7 Nominations
Indiana Film Journalists Association, US
• 7 Nominations
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 4 Wins & 6 Nominations
