Golden Lion in Venice for “The Event”, shot in Angoulême

The shooting was more low-key and shorter than that of Wes Anderson for “The French Dispatch”, but the film “The event” awarded last night in Venice also a bit of Angoulême and Charente on the bill.

Audrey Diwan’s film, which yesterday received the Golden Lion at La Mostra – the equivalent of the Cannes Palme d’Or – was partly shot in Angoulême between August and September 2020. But also in Confolens. Also with a Charente touch to the casting since Sandrine Bonnaire has many ties with the department and several dozen local extras took part in the filming. You can find the actress’s interview during this shoot by clicking here.

We also find on the bill Anna Mouglalis and in the first role the Franco-Romanian Anamaria Vartolomei, who plays a young student who becomes pregnant in France in the sixties.

The film tells about his journey to try to get an abortion ten years before the Veil law. The film is adapted from the eponymous autobiographical story by novelist Annie Ernaux.

Feminist signal

With this choice, the Venice Film Festival sent a new feminist signal by unanimously awarding its Golden Lion for a raw and intimate film on abortion, “The Event”, two months after the Palme d’Or to another Frenchwoman.

“Unfortunately when you work on abortion you are always in the news“said the 41-year-old French director, who said she had received her award. “made this movie with anger and desire”.

Four years after the Weinstein affair and the start of the great examination of conscience of the 7th art, the very gradual opening of the most prestigious awards to female directors is confirmed: in July, the Cannes Film Festival distinguished a young French director, Julia Ducournau , 37, Palme d’Or with the UFO “Titane”, a feminist film which in its own way blows up the boundaries between genres.
“Something is changing. A woman has won the Oscar, a woman has won the Palme d’Or, a woman has won the Golden Lion. It has to mean something, it cannot be chance. “, underlined Audrey Diwan.

This is the second film by Audrey Diwan, French novelist and journalist of Lebanese origin, who co-wrote the screenplay for several films including “Bac Nord” or “La French” by Cédric Jimenez, then moved on to directing (“But you are crazy”). She becomes the fourth director to receive the most prestigious award in Venice since 2000.

The jury awarded the prize for best actress to Penélope Cruz, for her role in “Madres Paralelas”, by Pedro Almodovar, who continues with his favorite actress to celebrate the strength of women and mothers in the face of cowardly or absent men. Among the actors, the jury distinguished the Filipino John Arcilla for his role as a journalist in search of truth in “On the Job 2: The Missing 8”.

–