Happening (L’evenement - 2021)

I was moved by this powerful and eventually harrowing story of a 1960s college student in France who needs an abortion when it was a jailable offense to provide or receive one. Annamaria Vartolomei's Anne is a hard-working young woman determined not to let her studies and career be derailed. Sandrine Bonnaire, the only name in the credits that I recognized, plays her mother.

Director/co-writer Audrey Diwan and co-writer Marcia Romano, with collaboration from Anne Berest and Alice Girard, adapted the 2000 novel/memoir by Annie Ernaux.

I noticed very little music during the movie, but what there was was composed by brothers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine. Here's a YouTube video with the music from the closing credits.

Among its 25 wins and 46 more nominations, the movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and had been on my list for a while.

Bonnaire was last blogged for Queen to Play and the Galperines for The Family. Vartolomei has ten other acting credits. This is Diwan's second feature directing but has written or co-written eight altogether and Romero has written dozens of feature films.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics gave it a near-perfect 99% but its audiences, not so much at 76. I watched it on Hulu on August 24.