52 Films by Women Vol 7. 16. ANGRY ANNIE (Annie Colère) (Director: Blandine Lenoir)
Watching the 1970s set French drama, Annie Col ère ( Angry Annie ), I experienced a sense of d éjà vu. In it, a thirty-something married mother of two procures an abortion, joins an illegal group, and starts performing abortions herself. Didn’t I watch this last week with Call Jane ? Director Blandine Lenoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Axelle Ropert, spent five years on the project, researching the work of MLAC – the Movement for the Liberation [Freedom] of Abortion and Contraception, which led to the legalisation of abortion in France in 1975. She has made the better film, only accidentally finding timeliness – as Call Jane did – with the overturning this year of Roe vs Wade in the United States, which once again criminalised the termination of pregnancies in large swathes of the country. Set in a small village, Lenoir’s film deals with a nervous mother, Annie (Laure Calamy) who seeks help from her local MLAC and, like the protagonist in Call Jane , finds herself joining...