Audrey Diwan’s French-language abortion drama has already been recognised as a major piece of film-making (it won the top prize at Venice; more recently, Diwan was nominated for a Best Director Bafta). Sublime, in the truest sense of the word, it offers a take on the swinging 60s that contains images as gorgeous an anything in a Monet painting, as well as details so ugly you may keep forgetting to breathe.
The script’s based on a semi-autobiographical novel by French icon Annie Ernaux. French-Romanian actress Anamaria Vartolomei (as bright-eyed as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom) is formidable as gifted working-class teenager, Anne. Studying literature in Angouleme, Anne is determined to go to university and seems as cool as a cucumber, even when she discovers she’s pregnant. She knows abortions are illegal but is sure doctors and/or her pals, Brigitte (Louise Orry-Diquero) and Helene (Luana Bajrami), will come to her rescue.
