Synopsis
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 shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so.
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Cast
- Anamaria VartolomeiAnne Duchesne
- Kacey Mottet KleinJean
- Luàna BajramiHélène
- Louise Orry-DiquéroBrigitte
- Pio MarmaïPr. Bornec
- Sandrine BonnaireGabrielle Duchesne
- Cyril MetzgerGaspard
- Anna MouglalisMadame Rivière
- Fabrizio RongioneDr. Ravinsky
- Julien FrisonMaxime
Recommendations
- 94
The Atlantic
The film can be unrelenting: Several graphic scenes make it challenging to watch, and more than once, I caught myself holding my breath. As the story’s weeks stretch into months, you can see the tension gather in Anne’s piercing gaze. It’s as if her eyes might set the screen aflame with her frustration, fury, and—eventually—panic. - 91
The Playlist
The result is difficult to watch yet impossible to turn away from, the legitimacy of its naked honesty seeping from every rough corner and crevice of the production. - 91
IndieWire
More than anything else, Diwan seems interested in exploring how, at many points in history, young women had no choice but to bear this particular burden alone. - 90
Variety
Happening is filmed and performed in such a delicate, skin-soft register, meanwhile, that the escalating terror of Anne’s situation is all the more pronounced, eventually pivoting into a realm of wholly realism-based body horror. - 83
The Film Stage
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. - 80
The Guardian
Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, the film plays its private trauma as a harrowing thriller, and showcases a superb performance from Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne Duchesne, the agonised student in the spotlight. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
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. - 80
The Telegraph
Deftly adapted by director Audrey Diwan from a novella, Happening is a period piece, but it’s acted and shot with a shivery immediacy.
