L'évènement (film)

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Movie
Original title L'évènement
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2021
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Audrey Diwan
script Audrey Diwan,
Marcia Romano
production Edouard Weil ,
Alice Girard
camera Laurent Tangy
cut Géraldine Mangenot
occupation

L'évènement (international title: Happening ) is a French movie by Audrey Diwan from the year 2021 . The abortion drama is based on the report of the same name by Annie Ernaux (English title: The event ). Anamaria Vartolomei took on the leading role of a young literature student who accidentally became pregnant in France in the 1960s .

In the year of its release, L'évènement premiered in competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival and won the festival's main prize with the Golden Lion .

plot

France, in 1963: Anne, who came from a modest background, is considered a lively student. When the young woman becomes pregnant, her promising future is in danger. Her final exams are approaching and her baby bump is starting to grow. She fears that she will not be able to finish her university studies and that she will lose everything with the birth of an illegitimate child. With the desired academic title, Anne wanted to escape the constraints of her social background. She is determined to have an abortion . However, abortion was illegal in 1960s France. Anne begins a gauntlet run which, if discovered, could result in jail time.

History of origin

Script adaptation and literary source

L'évènement is the second feature film by French director Audrey Diwan , for which she also wrote the screenplay with Marcia Romano . Both had already worked together on Diwan's directorial debut Mais vous êtes fous (2019). It was important to the filmmaker to bring Annie Ernaux's autobiographical report, published in 2000, to the big screen with “simple gestures” and to create a timeless film that transcends gender boundaries. Diwan and Romano discussed the script closely with Ernaux and sent her all the versions. Diwan also asked the author about details that were not specifically presented in the book.

Annie Ernaux (2016)

Ernaux himself had undergone a secret abortion as a literary student in Rouen in January 1964 . When it was published by Gallimard, the work was praised by some French-language literary critics as a “clinical”, “heartbreaking report” on a deliberate abortion. In 2010 L'évènement was adapted as a monologue for the French theater. Looking back in 2014, Ernaux criticized the fact that her book had not received due influence when it was published and described the media response at the time as "terrifying". At the same time, women who also had an abortion would not have wanted to talk about their experiences as contemporary witnesses and would have wanted to draw a line behind the past.

“A kind of law of silence accompanied him. While Bernard Pivot always invited me, he abstained. One journalist didn't want to talk about it because he said to me, 'I felt sick while reading the book.' For many media outlets this fight was over. "

- Annie Ernaux on the release of L'évènement in 2014

Ernaux described abortion as a life-changing experience. She consciously chose the title L'évènement (Eng. "The Event") because there was "a before and an after". Although the author was never ashamed of the act, she suffered from the secrecy that the event brought with it. She couldn't reveal herself to her best friend like that. Ernaux's husband knew about the Engelmacher's visit , but did not speak to her about it. After the abortion, Ernaux called the doctor so as not to die from the subsequent bleeding.

“I called the doctor so as not to die while there are girls who did not feel ashamed. I was treated like nothing. The doctor called by the university campus concierge took my chin and asked me to swear not to do it again. Doctors would break the law if they were of wealthy origins. From the night shift, I learned that the surgeon who performed the curettage didn't know I was a student. He was ashamed of treating me like a worker, she told me. Some wealthy women went to Switzerland . It was terribly expensive for me. I paid 400 francs for the angel maker. "

- Annie Ernaux (2014)

In the 1970s, Ernaux began to fight for the liberalization of abortion and first processed the subject in her debut novel Les armoires vides (English: “The empty cupboards”) for the first time. It was not possible to publicly declare during this time that you had an abortion yourself. Ernaux's husband was an executive at the time, and such information would have been “a bombshell”. Abortions in France were not legalized until 1975 by the " loi Veil ".

A German translation of L'évènement is to appear in September 2021 under the title The Event by Suhrkamp Verlag .

Filming and production

The shooting of the film took place in summer 2020, between the first and second corona wave in France. According to Diwan, he mainly relied on a cast of young, intelligent actresses who had all read Ernaux's book. Diwan discussed the topic and cinema in general with them and let them participate in the making of the film. Anamaria Vartolomei was hired for the part of Anne , who prepared the filmmaker with special care and continued to look after her on the film set. Due to a series of complicated and intimate scenes, the film team oriented itself to the main actress and her feelings. In retrospect, Diwan should praise Vartolomei for her incredible courage. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their consultations had to take place online. Diwan and Vartolomei exchanged ideas every two to three days and also discussed a lot about the presentation and use of the body. She also sent the actress films for inspiration, including Rosetta by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne .

The acting ensemble also included Pio Marmaï , who had played the male lead in Diwan's first film. Was produced L'évènement by Edouard Weil and Alice Girard (Rectangle Productions), in collaboration with France 3 Cinéma. The majority of the film crew was female. Diwan said she wanted to be open to engaging women in any position. She also works better with women, some of whom she describes as “close friends” and a kind of “family”. Together with production designer Diéné Berete , costume designer Isabelle Pannetier , make-up artist Amélie Bouilly and hairdresser Sarah Mescoff , Diwan endeavored to authentically capture the look and feel of the 1960s, but attached great importance to subtlety. Audiences should feel like they are in the 1960s without being overly aware of it.

Publication and reception

The film premiered on September 6, 2021 at the 78th Venice Film Festival . A theatrical release in France is planned for February 22, 2022 in the distribution of Wild Bunch , which also secured the international exploitation rights.

After its premiere, German-language film reviews were mostly positive about L'évènement :

Wolfgang Höbel ( Spiegel Online ) praised Audrey Diwan for translating Annie Ernaux's working method "in an oppressive way [...] into film images". In "sometimes shaky shots [...] the film takes the perspective" of the main female character very directly. The director's view of the French men's society of the 1960s is sober, grim and ruthless. The audience would feel “anger” at the often outrageous portrayal of “social conditions and […] mechanisms of gender discrimination”. In the end, "the university and the world of the spirit could be a better, freer home for Anne," said Höbel.

Susan Vahabzadeh ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ) called L'évènement “a special feature” in the competition and the story as “the stuff of nightmares”. She noted that the costumes made it “not immediately” obvious at what time the film was playing. The story reminds her of anti-abortion opponents like the French politician Marine Le Pen . Vahabzadeh wondered why portraying abortions in the cinema was not a matter of course. You can see a lot of it in Diwan's film, but she is “using blood sparingly” in a “bloody competition” in Venice.

Dominik Kamalzadeh ( Der Standard ) remarked that L'évènement was one of the films that was conspicuously strong in Venice and that were shot from a “pronounced female perspective”. The work is "precisely and sensitively staged", even if the historical context is kept short in contrast to the literary model.

Andrey Arnold ( Die Presse ) commented that the film had been received “euphorically” in Venice due to its current topic, after, among other things, recent restrictions on abortion rights in Texas and Poland . Diwan presented a "straightforward, straightforward staging" which, in comparison with other films on the subject such as Never Rarely Sometimes Always , seemed "more like a textbook and schematic". This "however increases the majority capability of their empowerment narrative".

Dietmar Dath ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) criticized the fact that the shock effect of a fetus on the umbilical cord devoured the content of “women's rights” in the film. The scene, which was causing horror, was not confronted with any offers of identification, similar to the "Soldier Showpiece Vidblysk ", which was also in the competition .

Awards

For L'évènement , Diwan received the Golden Lion , the main prize of the film festival, when she was invited to the competition for the first time . In addition, the work was honored there with the ARCA CinemaGiovani Award, Brian Award and FIPRESCI Prize .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c L'évènement . In: labiennale.org (accessed September 5, 2021).
  2. ↑ a b The event . In: suhrkamp.de (accessed on September 5, 2021).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Melanie Goodfellow: Audrey Diwan on Venice abortion drama 'Happening': “My first response to the book was one of shock” . In: screendaily.com, September 6, 2021 (accessed September 7, 2021).
  4. ^ A b Natalie Crom: Annie Ernaux ou les mots au plus près de la vie . In: La Croix , April 13, 2000, p. 14.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Mina Kaci: "Les femmes seront-elles obligées de retourner chez la faiseuse d'anges?" In: L'Humanité , February 3, 2014, Vol. 3 (accessed via the Nexis Uni press database).
  6. ^ Éric Ollivier: Annie Ernaux: La tragédie de l'avortement . In: Le Figaro , May 4, 2000 (accessed via the Nexis Uni press database).
  7. ^ Annie Ernaux, que l'événement devienne écrit . In: Le Temps , March 11, 2000 (accessed via the Nexis Uni press database).
  8. ^ Bernard Fauquembergue: "L'Événement" d'Annie Ernaux sur scène . In: La Nouvelle République du Center Ouest, September 29, 2010, p. 12.
  9. ↑ a b c Fabien Lemercier: Audrey Diwan's Happening creates quite a buzz . In: cineuropa.org, July 21, 2021 (accessed September 5, 2021).
  10. ↑ L'évènement . In: allocine.fr (accessed September 5, 2021).
  11. ^ Wolfgang Höbel: Nazi freaks and other family members . In: Spiegel Online, September 9, 2021 (accessed September 11, 2021).
  12. ↑ Susan Vahabzadeh: Like a Zombie from the Grave . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 9, 2021, p. 11.
  13. ↑ Dominik Kamalzadeh: Having fun with shredded Golden Globes . In: Der Standard, September 7, 2021, p. 22.
  14. ^ Andrey Arnold: horror in Soho, nostalgia for Naples, abortion in Angouleme . In: Die Presse , September 8, 2021, p. 24.
  15. ↑ Dietmar Dath: Zack! Hack! Horror! Hollywood! . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 9, 2021, No. 209, p. 12.
  16. ^ Official Awards of the 78th Venice Film Festival . In: labiennale.org, September 11, 2021 (accessed September 11, 2021).
  17. ^ Collateral awards of the 78th Venice Film Festival . In: labiennale.org, September 11, 2021 (accessed September 11, 2021).