In 1974, an accidentally pregnant woman, already a mother of two children, is so touched by the benevolence of a militant movement for the right to abortion that she then joins the group, thus finding a new meaning in her life. .
We thought the issue was settled a long time ago, but now, at a time when the right to abortion is threatened by ultra-conservative groups all over the world, cinema is turning to the years when women had to fight hot fight to get it right. Audrey Diwan recounted this fight on an intimate level in The eventinspired by the autobiographical story of Annie Ernaux in the early 1960s. Blandine Lenoir (Zouzou, Dawn) brings this struggle to the political field by evoking the militancy of the 1970s.
You can see Annie Anger in the continuity of The event, insofar as the feature film illustrates where things are ten years later. Blandine Lenoir evokes both the intimate and social character of a story set within a militant movement, whose action, very brief (this movement existed for 18 months), forced the French government to decriminalize abortion in 1975, thanks to the Veil law. The filmmaker’s approach does not always avoid didacticism, but Annie Anger remains above all a fundamentally human film.
At the heart of the story is the character of Annie played by Laure Calamy, brilliant as always. In this year 1974, this modest worker, pregnant by accident, meets women from the MLAC (Movement for the freedom of abortion and contraception). Within this group, women, who are also offered emotional support, can obtain an illegal abortion, performed in complete safety in the eyes of all, with a view to benevolence and concrete help. We will thus note this very beautiful scene where a song sung by a volunteer (Rosemary Standley) comes to soothe the anxieties of a patient.
Militant action taking more and more space in the life of Annie, married and mother of two children, Blandine Lenoir evokes at the same time a story of emancipation – we are in the 1970s – and its impact on life. family, especially with a husband (Yannick Choirat) who is nevertheless very open-minded.
In other words, the filmmaker not only recalls the details of a struggle that women had to wage at arm’s length, but she also plunges us very convincingly back into the spirit of an era.
Indoors
Drama
Annie Anger
Blandine Lenoir
With Laure Calamy, Zita Hanrot, India Hair
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