ANTONIA'S LINE
(ANTONIA)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
ANTONIA'S LINE (ANTONIA) is a film from The Netherlands that is one of the nominees for best foreign language picture of 1995. For completeness sake, the others are: ALL THINGS FAIR (Sweden), DUST OF LIFE (Algeria), O QUATRILHO (Brazil), and THE STAR MAN (Italy). Why they left out the wonderful SHANGHAI TRIAD (China) and THE PROMISE (Germany), I have no idea. ANTONIA'S LINE is the story of about fifty years in the life of a Dutch woman named Antonia (Willeke Van Ammelrooy) and of her family.
The film starts in what appears to be the present. Antonia is getting out of bed, which is a little hard for her that day since she has decided that it is the day she will die. The coming of death focuses her mind on the past and on her mother's death.
The story flashes back about fifty years. Antonia is taking her daughter Daniklle (Jan Decleir) with her to witness the death and then the burial of Antonia's mother. It is right after the end of World War II, and the banners of freedom and liberation are flying everywhere in Holland. Soon we find out how whimsical this film will be. Antonia's mother refuses to die. In fact during her funeral, she rises out of the coffin and starts singing "My Blue Heaven" in English. This type of craziness can work in a well constructed movie, but the script by Marlene Gorris is a mess. There are numerous other examples of eccentric behavior. A typical one is the woman who opens her window to howl at the moon, which disturbs the man who lives in the apartment below her. He hits the ceiling with a broomstick and looks like he is ready to kill her.
The funeral is a beautiful Roman Catholic service full of incense and ceremony, but Antonia quickly proclaims that she thinks it is "all rubbish." As is popular in the modern cinema, the church is ridiculed. In a scene that will be repeated innumerable times throughout the picture, a man is mean and insensitive to others less powerful than he. In this case, it is a priest who pushes an altar boy in front of the entire congregation during the service. As a sex, we learn in this mean spirited film, that we men are brutish at best. The only exception seems to be mentally retarded men who come off as being victims along with most of the females. A one sided view of life that makes the men in the audience want to leave in the dark by the side exit of the theater before the lights go up in fear that one of the women will cry out, "there goes one of them, get him".
Antonia is a match for males of any age. When she comes across a five year old throwing a rock at a mentally handicapped man known as Loony Lips, she takes the little boy and leaves him hanging on a hook in the woods where he can not get down by himself. The director (Marlene Gorris) wants you to feel no sorrow for the kid even if the show's heroine does put the kid in a scary and life threatening situation. He did throw that rock remember.
Later in the show there is a rape scene that is punished as well, but I will not go into the details of that punishment. We also have men hitting a mentally disabled girls on the head just for pure meanness. In this type of world, it is perhaps not surprising that when Daniklle announces she wants a baby, she is not interested in a man at all. This conundrum is solved by find a friendly female who has a brother who promises to have sex with Daniklle and then leave forever. Daniklle does it with him in complete boredom. From there the story moves on and includes Antonia's granddaughter Therese (Els Dottermans) and her great-granddaughter Sarah (Thyrza Ravesteijn).
There is no story to speak of. The film is more an eclectic collection of incidents in Antonia's life. Each is like a self-contained morality tale where we learn about the purity of women and evil of the men who victimize them. If the film had attempted more balance, perhaps I could have gotten beyond its pedantic messages, but as constructed, I felt like the defendant in a Kafka trial, and I kept wanting to cry out, "I'm not guilty!"
On a positive note, the Dutch scenery is lovely and the cinematography (Willy Stassen) captures it well. The director, while too oppressive for my taste, did demonstrate a high degree of control and is not afraid to take risks with crazy antics.
ANTONIA'S LINE runs 1:33 and even less would have been better in my book. It is in Dutch with English subtitles. The film is not rated but is most certainly an R movie. There is sex, nudity, and violence especially rape scenes. I would not let teenagers go unless they were mature, and I would want to discuss it with them afterwards if they did go. I do not recommend this movie, and I give it a single *.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: February 22, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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