Antonia's Line
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Movie Reviews of Antonia's Line
Movie Review: Antonia's Line
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a charming story! Antonia has courage and heart, and she shows the strength women have. After seeing this film at a friends house, I immmediately went online and ordered my own copy. A must for my collection.Movie Review: A celebration of life and bloodline
Summary: 4 Stars
As ANTONIA'S LINE begins, we watch an elderly Antonia (Willeke van Ammelrooy) awaken in the morning and decide that, before the day is out, she'll gather her family around her bed, and die. Is she desperately ill? Not apparently. But she's lived life to the full, and now it's time to exit. She rises to begin her last day like any other, gazes out the window, and her life flashbacks for the audience.Shortly after the end of World War II, single-mother Antonia returns to the small, Dutch village of her birth with her teenage daughter, Danielle (Els Dottermans). They arrive just in time to attend the death of Antonia's own widowed mother. Afterwards, mother and daughter take over the family farm, and begin to assimilate into village life. Generation follows generation. Antonia founds a matriarchy, and heads an extended family of neighbors, who periodically gather around her outdoor table for a home-cooked meal to celebrate existence.
ANTONIA'S LINE is an earthy, mostly gentle, and occasionally eccentric salute to life - alternately humorous, sad, happy, tragic, dramatic, and poignant. It wouldn't have worked had the setting been urban. And there's a plethora of interesting characters. The Mad Madonna, a woman who howls at the full moon from her second-floor town apartment, and the man downstairs, a Protestant, who's prevented from declaring his adoration for her because she's a Catholic. Deedee, the mentally challenged and sexually abused daughter of a local family who seeks refuge with Antonia, and Loony Lips, the village idiot that loves her. The nihilist Crooked Finger (Mil Seghers), who never goes outside his dwelling, but is Therese's brilliant philosopher-tutor. Boer Bas (Jan Declair), the lonely widower farmer who craves Antonia's companionship.
Viewers born and raised in the U.S. may find the film's eminently practical treatment of sex, sin, crime, punishment, and religion startling. This is, after all, a Dutch production. Antonia barely bats an eye when Danielle tells her that she wants a child, but not the man that goes with it. Off the two go to the Big City to find a suitable stud muffin, who ultimately plants the seed during an afternoon's hotel tryst while an imperturbable Antonia waits outside. Meanwhile, the village knows all, takes care of its own, and keeps to itself.
It's Antonia around whom everybody else revolves in this pastoral soap opera. Van Ammelrooy is delightful, and the Make-Up Department does a superb job "aging" Antonia from her 30s to 80s. Dottermans has a slightly off-kilter visage that helps to make her Danielle immensely sympathetic. All performances are flawless.
My only objection to the plot was the starting point, which was that Antonia found it appropriate and timely to die for no good reason that was explainable. She was in apparent good health, and anchored the support network on whom so many depended. Her leaving almost seemed selfish. However, that said, it's a good trick if you can manage it. The ultimate Quit when you're ahead.
Movie Review: Soothing...
Summary: 4 Stars
The 1995 film won the 1996 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film. It is described by its director as a "feminist fairy tale." It is set in a rural farming village in the Netherlands (and filmed in Belgium) and covers a span of 40 years beginning after the end of World War II. Antonia, 40 years old, is a strong minded, strong willed and a fiercely independent woman. She returns to the place of her birth, a family farm, when she is called home by her Mother who is about to die. Antonia raises her teenage daughter Danielle and works a large farm without a husband. While Antonia and Danielle find the town to be backward in its traditions and customs, they settle in and make a life for themselves - and they begin to leave their mark (a better one) and shape the town by taking in a retarded girl who is raped - taking in a simpleton who is abused by his family and the town children - and be-friend a farmer who is spouseless trying to raise 6 children. Then the story moves through 2 later generations with Danielle wanting a child (but not a Father) - the birth and development of Danielle's daughter, Therese who is a math and music prodigy - and onward to the birth or Therese's daughter - a cute a charming red head who watches her great grandma leave the earth.
The film touches a number of topics including purpose of life and death (a lot on and too much on Death for my taste), religion, sex, love and marriage. Most of the men in the story are mere appendages or brutes - and there is little understanding of some who play key roles - like Crooked Finger, a family friend (who explains Plato, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer to the young girls) - we don't know who he is, how he became a close family friend - or why he believes humanity is as dark and hopeless as he does.
The cinematography is wonderful in this film with the director capturing the beauty of the Belgium landscapes - sunsets over fields and hills - the simple, comforting farm houses and large families gathering around a large wooden table for meals and celebrations - the basic but functional architecture on the town buildings and homes.
And a NY Times reviewer captured the essence of the film - "Strong Women With a Faith in Destiny...While the film rejects and even mocks ideas of organized religion, it has a solid faith in nature and destiny, as well as in the fundamental goodness of its women. It expresses that faith with serene confidence in the cycles of birth, death and replenishment that play out during the story."
Movie Review: Philosophical ...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an impressive, thought-provoking and well directed (and narrated) movie.
It transcends four generations, numerous seasons and mingles philosophy, religion, sexuality, violence and family/social relationships into an interesting fare. The story revolves around Antonia and her daughter Danielle who migrate to a remote Dutch village after the end of the World War. Their interaction with the village folks, neighbors and the ensuing social bond is the primary premise of the movie.
Antonia is a strong, but humble person who is a picture of strength and fortitude. She is the matriarch of the family and her presence inspires strength and comfort in all the people around her. She lived and died gracefully. Interestingly, she chooses her time to die. This is a very thought provoking point: Can we mortal humans ever know the right time to die? Should the selection of the time to die be controlled by us or by nature?
Danielle is a free spirited and independent woman who chooses to raise a daughter without a father. This brings forth an interesting point about relationships. Do we need to bond with other people to lead a real meaningful life? Do we need presence of other people in our lives to be complete ourselves?
Another interesting character is called "Crooked Finger", who is extremely erudite (physics and mathematics) and a philosopher at heart. He is always grappling with conundrums like "Why are we born?", "Why do people choose to live a life of misery instead of opting for death?" and many others. He eventually puts an end to his own misery by committing suicide.
There are numerous other interesting characters in the movie and all of them have their own little interesting stories. The characters seem a little contrived, but fit well into the overall premise of the movie.
The movie is well layered with many thought provoking themes and questions. It isn't thoroughly entertaining, but watchable. Well worthy of the awards it has bagged.
Movie Review: unfair criticism
Summary: 4 Stars
The men in this movie are not cardboard cut-outs. Crooked Fingers is probably the most complicated character in the film, and Antonia's lover is shown as a caring and kind man who was the intially the only one to stand up for DeeDee. Yes, he's not delved into to a great degree, because the film isn't about him. There ARE men in the family, every women except for the lesbian character has a significant male companion. Just because these men aren't constantly shown protecting and providing for the women doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't important. In fact, towards the end the red-haired man is shown as the main parent to the little girl.
If women are treated as props in films, it is never significant enough to note in a review; however, because this movie focuses on women instead of men, at least half the reviews are by people who think this movie implied men are unimportant. Indeed, there are hundereds of films where women don't even appear on screen at all. Why is it only a fair criticism when leveled at movies about females? And how does this movie show that men are unnecessary?
And Antonia doesn't kill herself, she just knows it's time to die. She's old, in her seventies or eighties at that point. How is that selfish? If anybody was selfish about their life and death decisions it was Crooked Fingers. And having a child without a man is not selfish as long as you have caring people to raise it. That is a moral judgement call on your part; you must believe only heterosexual couples should raise children.