Audrey Divan’s English directorial debut, Erotic Tale Emanuele With Leah Seidou in attendance, shoppers are making as much noise as any pack of furs they buy on the Croisette this week. But his latest film It happens (which was not a French choice for best foreign language film, although many thought it would win) could have the most lasting impact. The film was recently released in the United States amid announcements that the Supreme Court intends to take down Roe V Wade.
When the Audrey Divan movie It happens (The event) France nominated for an Oscar in favor of Julia Ducurno TitaniumThis wasn’t a big surprise for the sofa.
“It was such a difficult choice for them,” he said. “We both have films that aren’t that simple about academia.”
but Titanium It won the Cannes Palme d’Or branch, the sofa was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Venice Golden Lion. It happens. But the film on the sofa delivered the envelope to the point where the academy has historically transformed itself. It happens This is a graphic observation of a young woman, Ani, by Anamaria Vartolomei, undergoing an illegal abortion, a controversial issue that has never been used to change legislation in the United States. Romania presents the entry form for Christian Mungiu’s 2007 film, also on abortion. Four months, three weeks and two days.This did not make it into the list of finalists.
Eventually, perhaps ironically, none of this happened Titanium. But the decision to name France left the sofa unattended, not only because of the personally sympathetic friendship with Ducournau, but also because his rumors and opinions aren’t necessarily his creative driving force. Although she has made a film that speaks to the deeply personal heart of a woman’s freedom, she does not seem to have a healthy attachment to the way she has been received.
“I’m a lazy director, I do half the trip and then the audience has to do the other half,” he said. “I’m not a provocation, I don’t care.”
The sofa lit up with an adaptation of Annie Erno’s book of the same name as it struck a personal chord. “I’m a huge fan of Annie Erno’s literature and read the book myself after the abortion,” Diwan said. “I wasn’t looking for a movie. I wanted to read about it because I had to think about what had happened to me ”.
Unusually and sensitively, given the subject matter, he approached the adaptation in collaboration with Ermo, who is now 80 years old. “I asked him to tell me more about what wasn’t in the book. “I had more questions about the family than him,” Divan said. “We also talk about friends, sexual desire. He then agreed to read three versions of the script.
Divan then fought on a massive scale to make the film. “A lot of people in the industry have asked me: ‘Why do you want to make a film now, if we’re in France and we already have the law?’ World War II film. Why I think war is It wasn’t easy to understand them. I mean, look at how many women have died on the battlefield and tell me this is not a war. This is a silent war. “
Fortunately, he says, its producers are fighters. “But it was difficult to find money to make a film. And while we were thinking about it, let’s hope that at some point, when the film is finished, we will be able to show it to people from other countries. “
This dream came true when the film won the Golden Lion in Venice and the IFC acquired the rights in the United States. “The Golden Lion has changed everything on the subject and the light we can throw on it,” she said.
For Divan, while the film follows a specific abortion experience, at her feet it also touches the boxes for women and community control. “He is also a young student who wants to say to everyone: ‘I want an intellectual future. I will pass from one social caste to another. I have a desire and I will have a sex life. ‘ Okay, we also had an illegal abortion, but for me it was all about freedom.
Although the story is set in the 1960s, Divan is key to making the film relevant, so it didn’t use any clear signs or indicators in the film about that period. “I didn’t want to get confused, but I wrote history beyond time,” she said. “When you do a regular job it always seems to me that there is a trick and the trick is nostalgia. As for the condition of women, I have no nostalgia. And I really wanted to focus on what was important to me. Not the configuration, but the body. I read the book as a very intimate thriller. “I wanted the film to be a natural organic thriller, because time is running out and he has to find a way out.”
Another aspect of the story Divan wanted to make was that men would not be offended. There should be no simplification or explanation of his guilt here. “I read the book in 2019 and there were so many things I didn’t know about illegal abortion,” she said. “Imagine a 40 year old boy in 1963, they have no idea. That’s why it was very important for me not to judge any of my characters, but to understand them. “
Even the doctors of history who refuse to help Anna are not described as black or white, good or bad. “Who knows, or knows little, is afraid, because the law exists and the law is very hard. If you are a doctor and you go to help a girl who asks for your help, even if you think you are right, it is possible that at some point you will not be allowed to be a doctor anymore. So I was very careful not to separate men from women, but I was trying to understand: what do they know?
Diwan is part of Le Collectif 50/50, an association that promotes equality and diversity in the sector, and its It happens The technical team was made up mostly of women and the team he had already worked with on his first film Lose (But you must). He describes their working relationship as an “orchestra”, an analogy he uses because, especially for the long shots he uses, with very little editing, everyone has to move in perfect sync. “For a shot to be good, everything, everyone has to be ready at the same time,” he said. “It’s not like we’re doing this and that, this and that and we’ll see when we change. It was not like this”.
and disintegration It happens It turns out a particularly long scene in which Anna nearly died after an abortion. It’s shocking and hard to watch and unshakably real. Have you ever doubted the look of the sofa?
“It’s very difficult to get it right,” he said. “Emotionally, I was even surprised at times. I remember a series, a sound engineer came up to me and said, “Audrey, I’m sorry, but you cry louder than Anamaria”. But I had no doubts about how I wanted her to look on screen because Annie Erno, when she writes a book, never takes her eyes off her. So I can’t say you can ignore it. “So I really tried to be that girl and be in her house.”
The film was shot during a pandemic, but now Divan has finally had a chance to meet viewers, some of whom are against abortion. He didn’t hesitate to talk to them. “I’ve met some people [anti-abortionists] “In France, Italy, Germany, Austria,” he said. “But we managed to have a discussion, a debate. I won’t say they changed their minds about seeing the film, but new questions came up and that’s what we were able to share. “
Source: Deadline
