Happening Movie Review - How to Watch Happening Online
If you are looking for an insightful and harrowing portrayal of an unwanted pregnancy, then Happening is the film for you. It is a powerful drama that won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Based on Annie Ernaux’s semi-autobiographical novel, director Audrey Diwan delivers a tough and harrowing depiction of an unplanned pregnancy in 1960s France. It is also an important reminder of how abortion remains illegal in many countries today.
What is Happening?
The story begins with a worn-out old man reading a story to a fellow nursing home resident. That story is about two lovers, Noah and Allie, who fall in love back in summer of 1959. They get married and start a family. As they age, Allie develops dementia. But when Noah reads her the story of their lives, she remembers him and they embrace. Then they die, together. It’s a truly heart-wrenching scene and one that people just can’t get enough of.
It’s not the most original idea to stream a movie with an alternate ending, but Netflix across the pond did just that. Their version of The Notebook, which is streaming on their site right now, includes a very different story line and people aren’t happy about it. You’ve probably already heard about it, but we wanted to share it with you because you might have missed it. Check out the trailer below to see if it’s something you’re interested in seeing! Let us know what you think in the comments section. If it’s a movie you’re looking forward to, we’ll be sure to include it in our next list!
Plot Summary
The Notebook tells the story of two young lovers, Noah and Allie. They meet in a carnival and fall in love. But Allie's parents forbid the relationship and she is sent away to a nursing home. She eventually meets her future husband, Lon, but she still has feelings for Noah. As Allie ages and her dementia begins to progress, she discovers a notebook that tells of an enthralling romance. She is then able to see the story through her eyes again.
The film is directed by Tariq Diwan and stars Anamaria Vartolomei, who plays Anne. She is a passionate student who excels at literature, but when she learns that she is pregnant, she decides to seek an abortion despite the laws in place. This leads to the deterioration of her grades at college. In addition, she begins to suffer from a concussion. Throughout the movie, Vartolomei's performance makes her appear claustrophobic and she tries to take greater risks in order to keep her life together. This is a very emotional film, that is filled with many tender moments and important life changes.
Cast and Crew
In a movie, the cast and crew are just as important as the actors. Without their efforts, nothing would happen and the film wouldn’t be a success. The crew is responsible for making sure that the actors are performing their best and that the film is produced to the highest standards possible.
The cast of the movie “The Notebook” includes a lot of famous names, including Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. The movie also features several actors who have appeared in previous films. For example, Nick Cassavetes has appeared in several of his own movies and on TV shows before he made this one.
There are also many other actors who made an appearance in the movie. Some of them were not well known or even mentioned in the credits, but they played a crucial role in the movie’s production. For instance, Nick Cassavetes was one of the directors and producers of the film.
Another actor who played a role in the movie was Gena Rowlands. She acted as an older version of Allie, the character she portrayed in the movie. She also helped in the production of the movie and is the mother of director Cassavetes.
In addition to her acting responsibilities, Gena Rowlands is also a renowned photographer. Her work has been featured in a number of publications, including National Geographic.
She is also the author of a book about the history of Hollywood. This book has received a lot of attention, and it is a must read for anyone who is interested in the industry.
Finally, Gena Rowlands is a talented actress who has been around for a while. She started her career in the 1950s and has since starred in a variety of films.
The main characters of the show are Roger Thomas (Ernest Thomas), Dwayne Nelson (Haywood Nelson) and Freddy "Rerun" Stubbs (Fred Berry). All three teens are from the Watts area of Los Angeles and have similar backgrounds.
In addition to the main characters, the show features numerous other notable characters, such as Mabel King (Danielle Spencer) and her mother Mabel (Mabel King). Bill Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) is Mabel’s ex-husband and he appears in the earliest episodes as an uptight conman. In later episodes, he is depicted in a more positive light.
Release Date
It's hard to imagine a better time for a movie like Happening, which tells the story of a young woman in 1963 France struggling to find an illegal abortion. In fact, the film arrived at the exact moment a new set of leaked documents indicated the US Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade.
The story is based on a 2000 novel by Annie Ernaux, and it follows Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei), an intelligent and promising college student who falls pregnant in her dorm room while she's studying for her final exams. Her desire to finish her degree quickly grows, but as her studies suffer and her social life wanes, she finds herself forced to confront the shame and pain of pregnancy.
Diwan's direction and screenplay, co-written with Marcia Romano, are both admirable. She employs a docudrama-like realism to depict Anne's attempts at finding an illegal abortion, while also conveying the stigmatization of women’s sexuality in a period when they were not allowed to have sex at all. In one particularly uncomfortable scene, her flirty roommate Brigitte (Louise Orry-Diquero) demonstrates to Anne and her quiet friend Helene (Luana Bajrami) how best to use a pillow for masturbation.
While Diwan’s approach isn’t as direct as a movie like Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake (2004) or Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (2007), the movie still provides a powerful, harrowing reminder of what it would be like to have an unwanted pregnancy. While this is a period study, it’s a timely one that should be seen and mandated as part of sex education/history courses worldwide.
The resulting tension, heightened by a few moments of shock value imagery, is genuinely jarring in its power to evoke a sense of real physical reality. The film is a fine example of the type of sex-themed drama that Darren Aronofsky mastered with Requiem for a Dream.
That it won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion and has been a hit on the domestic festival circuit this year suggests that it will be a major movie. It is a film that is both sensitive and well-directed, and it feels especially timely in the current climate of threats to reproductive freedoms around the world. It should be a must-watch for anyone who cares about the future of women's rights.
