Annie is a worker in a mattress factory. Married and mother of a girl and a boy, she is satisfied with her lot, but does not want to have other children. Also, when she becomes pregnant, she turns to the Movement for Abortion and Contraception Freedom (MLAC), which performs illegal but safe abortions. In contact with all these supportive women, Annie now feels driven by new aspirations. The film Annie Anger Although it was set in 1974, its subject resonates with the present, as its director, Blandine Lenoir, agrees.
Basically, the project was born from a desire, even a necessity, to highlight an unknown page in the history of France before the Veil law.
“I am very interested in politics, I am a feminist, and yet I had never heard of the MLAC”, confides Blandine Lenoir, to whom we owe Dawna dramatic comedy fueled by feminist considerations starring Agnès Jaoui.
“This is a typical example of the unequal balance of power that characterizes historical narrative. Yes, Simone Veil appeared in front of all these men and she was extraordinary, but basically, if she was able to do what she did, it was because there was an enormous civil mobilization behind her. and a disobedience [civile] spectacular. »
In fact, the MLAC acted illegally, but in broad daylight, and above all, in safe conditions for women.
“The right to abortion has been in permanent danger for fifteen years. However, to properly defend a law, you have to know its history”, argues the filmmaker.
Hierarchy point
Blandine Lenoir, who wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Axelle Ropert, explains that she has documented herself extensively in order to repair what she describes as “voluntary historical forgetting”.
“I met MLAC alumni, I read an 800-page thesis… Many aspects interested me, because it was very rich. There was the doctor-patient relationship, this way of educating women on the way, the benevolence between women, the sudden absence of distinction between social classes… In these movements, the hierarchy was canceled: there were the doctors and non-doctors, men too, some more politicized, others less, and obviously all these women, workers and bourgeois, which is extremely rare. »
The fates of several of these women moved her.
“In the former MLAC with whom I spoke, there are many who entered it without education, but who subsequently resumed their studies, in particular to become nurses, or booksellers. I found that wonderful. What dazzled me the most, however, is to see that all these ordinary women have become politicized, driven by a desire to act for other women. The collective struggle, when it is well conducted, is emancipatory for personal journeys. »
The fictional character of Annie, played by Laure Calamy, thus took shape, gradually, thanks to these encounters and readings.
“Annie, she is in an experience that makes her suffer. In shame, she searches for a solution, but instead finds herself in a place where other women have the same problem as her; a place where we listen to them, where we help them. This personal problem is no longer that staff. It is this famous phrase: “Intimate is political”. »
For Annie, the commitment becomes necessary when her neighbor and friend dies as a result of a clandestine abortion.
This is feminism
To pursue Blandine Lenoir, the character of Annie, is a bit of a metaphor for feminism. “Often, the awakening to feminism occurs when you are a little girl or a young girl, and you live an unfair and inexplicable experience. In my case, I remember, at 11, my boobs were just starting to come out, and there were these guys my dad’s age making awful comments to me. I thought I was the only one going through this awful experience, and I was ashamed, I felt dirty. I thought it was my fault. When I told my girlfriends about it and they told me it was the same for them, then I understood that I was not alone. That’s feminism. It is to say to oneself: “What I am suffering from is not my fault, it is a systemic problem of society.” And that, this awareness, gives you incredible strength, because then you understand that you can fight together. »
According to Blandine Lenoir, when we manage to get rid of shame, it is now strength that prevails. However, there are victories that should never be taken for granted.
“All hard-won laws are by nature fragile: they are attacked as soon as we let our guard down. Abortion becomes illegal again or is compromised in many countries and states, same thing with marriage for all. If we give up, all these rights are threatened. You have to stay on the alert. »
In the wake of recent works like Never Rarely Sometimes Alwaysby Eliza Hittman, Call Jane(We are Jane), Phyllis Nagy, and of course The eventofAudrey Diwan, Annie Anger makes a point of showing the procedure, when it is properly practiced, far from the nightmarish clichés that have often been attached to it in the cinema.
“Representation is very important. I staged six abortions, and I wanted to film them as a relief, while this procedure is most of the time represented as creepy, violent, suffering… I believe that even today, in 2023, a woman who going to have an abortion at the hospital, she has these images in mind. Women need to be able to have softer representations. »
sadly current
The film also favors nuance in the male portraits, whether these characters turn out to be resistant to the right to abortion, or, on the contrary, women’s allies. This is especially the case for Philippe, Annie’s trade unionist husband.
“I like what we did with this character, for whom I have a lot of sympathy. He is happy for his wife. Well, at one point, he’s scared, but it’s always like that in a couple: one spouse has fun, and the other is afraid of losing him. The thing here is that Annie becomes bigger than him, she who before always asked his opinion. Suddenly, she no longer needs him to exist. But she’s not against him. »
Indeed, Annie does not compare her new commitment to that of Philippe: she does useful work on her side, more and more fulfilled, more and more liberated. It is Philippe who, out of insecurity, begins to measure himself against her, which generates tension.
“In a couple, you have to let yourself evolve. If we remained frozen, it would be terribly boring! »
As for the sadly current dimension of the film, Blandine Lenoir admits to having been taken aback.
“I didn’t think, while making it, that the film would resonate so much with the present, specifically compared to what we observe in the United States. In Poland, Italy and Spain, things are getting very tense, with the rise of the right. What is great, however, is that when it was released in France, in theaters, there were a lot of young people. And I tell myself that if there hadn’t been all this news, these young people might not have been interested in the subject. »
The film Annie Anger hits theaters February 10.
François Lévesque conducted this interview in Paris at the invitation of the Rendez-vous d’UniFrance.