Ein freudiges Ereignis (2011)

Ein freudiges Ereignis: Directed by Rémi Bezançon. With Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï, Josiane Balasko, Thierry Frémont. A happy event or an intimate view of motherhood, sincere and with no taboos.

“UN HEUREUX EVENEMENTu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAdapted from Eliane Abecassisu0026#39; (very) autobiographical novel recounting her own (rather sour) experience of pregnancy and baby raising, u0026quot;Un heureux événementu0026quot; (A Happy Event) cannot be called a feelgood movie but it is an interesting one nonetheless provided of course you are not an expecting woman, a future dad or simply someone fainthearted. For the main quality of director Rémi Bezançon (whose former film was the excellent u0026quot;Le premier jour du reste de ta vieu0026quot;) is his full frontal approach to the subject, without any false prudery or watering down. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Un heureux événementu0026quot; (quite an ironic title since, as exemplified here, having a baby is not necessarily an experience in keeping with the u0026quot;happy eventu0026quot; cliché) deals with the case of Barbara (Louise Bourgoin), a philosophy student doing a doctoral thesis, who, after falling in love with Nicolas (Pio Marmaï), finds herself with child. Not that she is a born mother (she is even a dedicated feminist) but love changes everything, which leads her to grant Nicolasu0026#39; desire to keep the baby. Of course she has no experience in the field but she is determined to practice learning by doing: how to be a pregnant woman, how to prepare for childbirth, how to go through the stages of labor and baby delivery and how to become a parent. Not an easy path for sure but one that millions of first-time mothers follow more or less overcome with anguish but successfully in the end. And this is what what would normally happen to Barbara who, with this wonderful gift, hopes to make her companion happy. Alas! Nicolas gradually turns from Prince Charming to Naughty Brat unable to hold his responsibilities, a bit like those kids who ask for a pet without the least notion of all the investment which goes with it, leaving it to their parents. From then on, Barbara (as well as her couple) sinks into the doldrums and the u0026quot;happy eventu0026quot; gradually turns into a dreadful burden.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you have seen u0026quot;Le premier jour du reste de ta vieu0026quot;, you will certainly find this movie less inventive and original. In the former film, Remi Bezançon had managed to tell the story of a singular family presented successively by its five members, each one reporting a key event filtered through their own subjectivity. Here, there is only one point of view (Barbarau0026#39;s) and the story is told in chronological order, without the fancy displayed in the former work (one exception though: a weird nightmare sequence). But this does not mean that the director has lost his creative sense. The unsophisticated form is actually a deliberate artistic choice, Bezançonu0026#39;s camera following Barbarau0026#39;s slow but implacable descent into hell from the beginning to its close in a documentary-like way, with nothing to distract the viewer. Which makes his film a dour realistic work whose uncompromising approach may account for its mixed results at the box office. But it is also a film that rings true (Eliette Abecassis knows what she is talking about), very well interpreted by Lise Bourgoin who, despite (or maybe because) her personal lack of experience of motherhood, is totally and courageously invested in her role. Heartthrob Pio Marmai is very good too in his embodiment of u0026quot;The Unbearable Lightness of Beingu0026quot; as defined by Milan Kundera.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot a pleasant film experience, as I wrote before (but must the arts always please us?), u0026quot;Un heureux événementu0026quot; is a worthwhile one though, at least for those whose defense mechanisms are strong enough to stand it.”