Happening

Definitely the most important movie of the year, maybe even the best movie of the year. Diwan’s directing is careful and everything is so perfectly framed. Everything that needed to be shown and presented simply was. It makes for some harrowing, hard viewing, but it’s also very honest and nonjudgemental. The tone, horror and restraint was all handled amazingly in my opinion. Vartolomei is fantastic in a role I’d imagine wasn’t easy to act or film. Beautifully done.

Incredibly well made and guts wrenching story about a young girl in the 60s France that gets pregnant and are driven to abortion from a society not made for her situation.

Several really good films have already been made about this subject including 'Vera Drake', '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' and 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'. This Dardenne-ish picture is probably the best of the bunch, though.

French abortion diary that visualizes the 60s in succulent colors and the usual Dardennes-influenced hand-held close-to-medium shots. It gets rather graphic by the end and I wonder if the contrast between this body horror and the picturesque nouvelle vague stylings is the one original idea brought to the table. Otherwise, it's an empty genre film; the scenes suggest themselves.

I haven't seen many foreign films, but goddamn it I need to. This was fantastic. It's truly a story that needed to be told, especially in the world we're living in today. It made me feel all of the emotions and really envy living in the current age. Acting, directing, and writing were all superb and I honestly have no complaints. I give 9 attractive French women out of 10.

Diwan adapts the source novel in the best way - not looking to reproduce it but to tell it the way it needs to be told in this medium, which includes focusing in on the main character. Vartolomei lets the camera project it all onto her; the strength, the injustice, the panic, the desire for a future, and takes us all with her, leaving the sutble period setting and modern cinematography to ask if this is then or tomorrow.

Sometimes it feels too Dardennes-ish in its approach to story, but at least this is totally character-driven and doesn't try to build a panel on the subject os something like that. Bonnaire shines in every shot.

If they had cellphones and spoke English, then this could have been set in America in 2023.

Approaches its subject matter in linear, head-on, unpoetic fashion. The resulting film is one that is to be endured more than enjoyed or contemplated. It is wall-to-wall despair and doesn't leave much room for imagination at all.

As opposed to 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' where at least women had solidarity towards one another, here the false Puritanism and fake morality of both men and women accusing and name-calling sexually active women is blatantly on display. Good acting from the lead.

Despite some pacing issues and a lack of a strong political stance, “Happening” is a powerful and moving film that delivers an emotional and impactful portrayal of the struggles women faced in the 1960s. Anamaria Vartolomei’s performance is outstanding and the film is a poignant reminder of the importance of women's right to choose, which is just as relevant today as it was in the past.

It's a decent movie, uncomplicated, focusing on the protagonist's plight without going into too much detail beyond that, and it does succeed in garnering sympathy and avoiding glaring mistakes. Still, the subject of unwanted pregnancy and abortion has all been done better elsewhere, and most of this faded from my memory not long after I watched it.

Anlattığı şey çok önemli olsa da pek güçlü bir film olmayan L'événement, Fransız sinemasının güzel örneklerinden.