It Only Happens to Others

It Only Happens to Others (original title: Ça n'arrive qu'aux autres) is a 1971 French-Italian drama film written and directed by Nadine Trintignant, starring Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni. The picture was born from a devastating event in the filmmaker's own life: in 1969, Trintignant and Jean-Louis Trintignant lost their young daughter Pauline, and the film was made shortly afterward. It portrays a couple confronting the death of their child, tracing the heavy weight of grief, their struggle to accept what has happened, and their hesitant steps back toward ordinary life. Shot in French and running roughly ninety minutes, the film rests on the performances of its two celebrated leads and is remembered as one of the director's most personal works, shaped directly by private mourning.