Click here to copy URL

Happening

100 Movies of 2021

L'événement

2021

Audrey Diwan

Anamaria Vartolomei, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luàna Bajrami, Pio Marmai ...

7.0

3,920

Drama 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…

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Xan Brooks The Guardian	"The film plays its private trauma as a harrowing thriller, and showcases a superb performance from Anamaria Vartolomei (...) It’s a serious, gripping and finally honourable film (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Guy Lodge Variety	"Softly poised but packing a wallop, French writer-director Audrey Diwan's sophomore film announces her as a major talent."	POS
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"A blunt-force yet also measured drama propelled by a performance of astonishing emotional transparency from Anamaria Vartolomei (...) [It] will be meaningful to anyone who cares about personal freedoms"	POS
United States	Natalia Winkelman IndieWire	"An authentic and earnest work (...) There’s no didacticism here, just one woman’s true story."	POS
United States	Derek Smith Slant	"This period drama manages the difficult task of speaking to our current moment without being didactic or preachy (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Stephanie Bunbury Deadline	"A bravura piece of filmmaking. It is executed cleanly, precisely, without shying away from anything but without dwelling on it either"	POS
United States	Warren Cantrell The Playlist	"A bracing lead performance paired with patient yet informative directing accomplishes what few versions of this story could: it allows the story to tell itself without any heavy-handed monologuing or obsequious showboating."	POS
United States	Mitchell Beaupre The Film Stage	"Diwan gives a clear sense of who Anne is (...) [The film] is a sad reminder that this is a tale of past, present, and future."	POS
United Kingdom	Anna Smith Time Out	"Diwan [and Vartolomei's] collaboration makes for an atmospheric, gripping drama with a poignant contemporary relevance (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Lee Marshall Screendaily	"There’s a slight lack of dramatic tension in much of the lead-up to its harrowing finale, with too much weight placed on the capable shoulders of the French-Romanian actress Anamaria Vartolomei"	NEU
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"Absolutely fearless performance from Anamaria Vartolomei (...) It's more than just a powerful drama, it's a warning about what it means when politicians try to control a woman's body"	POS
United Kingdom	Ella Kemp Empire	"More than a biopic or period-piece, this is a stylish time capsule reaching into the present with unnerving clarity. Abortion care is still so hard —this film makes that fact sink into your bones (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Dustin Chang Screen Anarchy	"The film is a stark reminder that if we don't keep up the fight and push back, as absurd as it might sound, we might lose those rights we've been taking for granted"	POS
United States	Ross Bonaime Collider	"With 'L'événement', Diwan has crafted a horror story that is becoming a haunting and very real possibility"	POS
United States	Elizabeth Weitzman The Wrap	"Diwan uses social-realist technique to bring the audience into the heroine's struggle (...) 'L'événement' serves to unsettle, expose, and condemn. But also, most importantly, to honor and entreat"	POS
United States	Martin Tsai AV Club	"The reason [it] manages to be so persuasive is because it tells such a vivid, intimate and relatable story, whether as a viewer it has happened to you or someone in your life, or your biggest fear is that it will"	POS
United States	David Fear Rolling Stone	"An extraordinary story (...) 'L'événement' is a no longer just a look at what happened then. It's a preview of what happens next if we don't stop this reversal of rights right away"	POS
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"'L'événement' is a realist thriller that morphs, sans sentimentality or platitudes, into a quietly affecting portrait of female solidarity. That's lofty company for a movie to find itself in. But it manages"	POS
United States	Rex Reed The New York Observer	"Almost too agonizing to watch, I urge you not to miss it, and sincerely hope the people who made it are making immediate plans to set up a mandatory screening for the Supreme Court (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
	Kaleem Aftab Cineuropa	"[It] is gut-wrenching and a powerful watch (...) [Diwan lets] the audience bring their own feeling into the room without hiding just how painful and dangerous Anne's abortion attempts are"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.