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Searing, prescient French abortion drama ‘Happening’ arrives just in time.

May 11, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Opening just as the expected but still shocking news broke that the Republican appointees to the Supreme Court are ready to begin clawing back women’s rights within a few weeks, Happening could not be more timely or galvanizing. As Mark Olsen wrote recently in the L.A. Times, “Happening is set in 1963 and yet it suddenly feels like a possible window into the future. Directed by Audrey Diwan, who co-wrote the adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel of the same name, the film follows a young French college student Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) as she attempts to get an abortion after discovering she is pregnant. Though abortion became legal in France in 1975, in 1963 it very much was not, with potential prison time for the woman, whoever performed the procedure and anyone who helped. Isolated from her friends and family, Anne becomes increasingly driven as the weeks pass by to find a solution to her problem — anything that will allow her to continue on with her life as she planned and fulfill her goal to become a writer…In an emailed statement, Diwan responded to the recent news [from SCOTUS], writing, “The purpose of art is also to bring to light some hidden truths. We all know, time has proven it, that when abortion becomes illegal, women who feel the need for it find other solutions. And not safe ones. I think that those who want to intervene in the abortion debate, whether for or against, should at least know clearly what a clandestine abortion is. We cannot talk about what we don’t know. And I include myself here: before reading Happening, I participated in this conversation for a long time without knowing … I was wrong. We should all know, this must not stay silent.'”

 

Happening was a critical, commercial and cultural phenomenon in its native France, where it opened in the autumn. The New York Times recently published a piece headlined “In France, a Film Has Women Sharing Their Stories of Abortion: Following the release of Happening, about an illegal abortion in 1963, the country’s contemporary stigma around the procedure is facing scrutiny.” The lede: “Happening, Audrey Diwan’s film about a 1960s back-street abortion in France, isn’t for the fainthearted. In fact, audience members have fainted at several screenings, including at the Venice Film Festival last September, where it won the Golden Lion. ‘It’s often men who say the experience took them to the limit of what they could bear,” Diwan said in a recent interview, “because they had never imagined what it might be like.’…Happening, which aims for a sense of immediacy onscreen, has led artists and activists to speak up about the taboo they feel still surrounds the procedure. ‘There is this constructed social shame that women are meant to feel, Diwan said, ‘and the sense that if we talk about it, we take the risk of calling into question this right, which in the end is never assured.’ In response to Happening, last December, the French feminist magazine Causette devoted a cover story to testimonies from 13 celebrities, under the title: “Yes, I Had An Abortion.” The author Pauline Harmange, who rose to international prominence last year with her debut book “I Hate Men,” also published an essay in March about her own experience, “Avortée” (“Aborted”).”

Some of the abundant praise for Happening:

“Magnificently written, directed, shot and performed, it reminds you that cinema can be such a powerful medium of empathy.” – Zhuo-Ning Su, Awards Daily

“It’s hard to think of a film more necessary in the current moment.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Deftly adapted by director Audrey Diwan from a novella, Happening is a period piece, but it’s acted and shot with a shivery immediacy.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph UK

Audrey Diwan

We open Happening at the Claremont, Newhall, Playhouse and Town Center this Friday, May 13 and at the Monica Film Center, Glendale and NoHo on May 20.

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Filed Under: Claremont 5, Director's Statement, Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, Glendale, Newhall, NoHo 7, Playhouse 7, Press, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

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Join us July 24 for the sixth annual Art House Theater Day at the Monicas, Glendale, NoHo and Claremont.

THE LIFE OF CHUCK is an art house summer sleeper. Don’t skip this one.

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Laemmle Theatres is pleased to celebrate the sixth Laemmle Theatres is pleased to celebrate the sixth annual Art House Theater Day this July 24 by screening four fabulous films curated by this year’s ambassadors, filmmakers Sean Baker and Samantha Quan.

⭐ Sean Baker’s "Tangerine (2015)" at the @laemmlenoHo
⭐ Lily Tomlin’s "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991)" at the @laemmlemonicafilmcenter
⭐ Céline Sciamma’s "Tomboy (2011)" at the @laemmleglendale
⭐ Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart (2006) at the @laemmleclaremont

Taken together, the four beautifully represent the breadth, depth, humor, profundity and diversity that art house moviegoers seek out and embrace.

📣 The Tangerine screening will include exclusive content with ambassadors Sean Baker and Samantha Quan. The Search for Signs screening will feature a special audience salute from star Lily Tomlin.
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Escaping famine in Poland, Rebeca (Valentina Herszage), together with her son Joseph, arrives in Brazil to meet her husband, who immigrated first hoping for a better life for the three of them. However, she finds a completely different reality in Rio de Janeiro.
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Battling privilege and pestilence while not knowing if she's alive or dead, Black Woman finds skeletons and has her boots stolen. "First-time actress Mwajemi Hussein is riveting as an escapee trekking across a plague-ravaged wilderness in a magnificently parched, wordless parable." ~ Variety
⭐ Don't miss your chance to experience the mocku ⭐ Don't miss your chance to experience the mockumentary masterpiece THIS IS SPINAL TAP on the Laemmle big screen! Remixed, remastered, and re-releasing! it's going to be 11/10!

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🎟️TICKETS: laem.ly/4khU16n

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Tickets:  | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | Featuring The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Monica Film Center), Tangerine (NoHo), Tomboy (Glendale) and Whispers of the Heart (Claremont

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RELEASE DATE: 

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ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

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Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/kerouacs-road-beat-nation | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION explores how the legacy of Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel On the Road reflects in today’s America. The film interweaves stories of modern-day “on-the-roaders” who share connections to Kerouac’s life, alongside those influenced by him or knew and loved him.

Featured participants include Josh Brolin, W. Kamau Bell, Natalie Merchant, Matt Dillon, David Amram and Joyce Johnson. On the Road remains as relevant today as it was in the 1950s, but both the book and Kerouac himself have never been explored in this way before.

The film reveals a rarely seen

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/kerouacs-road-beat-nation

RELEASE DATE: 8/1/2025
Director: Ebs Burnough
Cast: Michael Imperioli (voice), David Amran (voice), W. Kamau Bell (voice), Josh Brolin (voice)

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ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
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Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/desperately-seeking-susan | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) spices up her boring life by reading personal ads, especially a series of them being placed by a mysterious denizen of New York City named Susan (Madonna). When one of Susan's ads proposes a rendezvous with her suitor (Robert Joy) at Battery Park, Roberta secretly tags along. But when her voyeuristic jape ends in permanent memory loss and a new jacket, Roberta begins to gather a lot of unwanted attention from some unsavory characters.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/desperately-seeking-susan

RELEASE DATE: 7/30/2025
Director: Susan Seidelman
Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn, Madonna, Robert Joy

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ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
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