This movie about the horrors of illegal abortion in the United States is now showing

In the portraits section, film critic Florty Smit took a look at contemporary visual culture.

The minutes don’t end. When Anne finally finds an “angel-maker” who dares to help her in 1963 in France (where termination of pregnancy is punishable by imprisonment), the procedure at L’événement is barely visible.

They are not allowed to make noise because of the neighbors. Movement is life threatening. She has to endure all the fear and horrible terrible pain in silence. And if the viewer – just like Anne – thinks he’s gone through it, he turns out to be a failure.

L’evenement IIt’s one of those movies that were mistimed perfectly. The film, which won the Golden Lion in Venice, has been showing in the Netherlands for a while and will premiere in the US this week, precisely when abortion law there is under attack once again.

Or is this not a coincidence? Is this the spirit of the age? Vanity Fair It indicates a trend: According to Abortion Onscreen, an organization that tracks how often abortion plays a role on screen, 2020 was a record year. Also striking: films over the past 15 years have increasingly been about women and their search for someone to have an abortion, not about the mother’s sudden feelings of making the procedure unnecessary, or about male protagonists trying to prevent the woman in question from having an abortion. to her. She will regret her decision for life.

And: Abortion is explicitly stated, if necessary, in all its atrocities. at Titan For director Julia Docornau, Alexia has been fiddling with a pin sharpshooter for too long to abort herself. “What I have in common with Julia Docornau,” she says. l’evenementDirector Audrey Dewan, “is that we’re talking about the anger we’re feeling right now.”

These kinds of scenes make abortion seem more barbaric than it needs to be today, assures a scientist in Vanity Fair† But danger isn’t the only thing that makes illegal abortion terrible, it turns out l’evenement† What sets it apart from other abortion films – apart from this candid scene – is the fact that Anne has no helper girlfriend(s) to make the misery somewhat bearable for the viewer. Different from unwanted pregnant women in Never Rarely Sometimes Always† not pregnant† 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days Or will appear soon Call Jane† No safety net. Because anyone who helps could end up in jail, everyone hands off Anne. She is alone in this.

That absolute loneliness – this is an inhuman horror that lasts longer than those horrific scenes.