Antonia's Line (1996)

the audience applauded

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This movie was a surprise. It all starts as an old woman sees that her last day on this world is coming, so she gets ready to say goodbye to all the women in her family (daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter). From that we go back to the past, to the moment she arrived back to her hometown with her daughter, and we see how they both grow old there, how their relationship with the other inhabitants develop and how they re-adapt to live in the countryside, in a very small village.The movie has hard moments, but also quite some funny ones, is quite smart and its characters are well developed. If it seems like a small movie, it may be, but it will grow on the watcher pretty fast, as you will get involved in the life of Antonia and all those that surround her. The actors do a great job and they bring a lot to the movie too.It will surprise you, it will make you laugh and, maybe, cry too.

Watching Antonia's Line 20 years after it was made (and winning Best Oscar Foreign Film then), it still has its quirky 'life-is-full-of-the-unexpected' charm reminiscent of 'new wave' movies of the 90s, though it does feel dated now. It's about lore, life, love/lovelessness, and definitely not about logic. So if you go about looking for typical character motivation, plot sensibility or any form of social, religious or political allegory, then you're looking for these typical "movie subtext" in the wrong garden. It is laughable how so many read 'feminism' into the movie. There is none of it, unless you go about creating one on your own. Both male and female characters can be interpreted as "strong" or "weak" depending on how you choose to view them based on your own bias - the movie as it is, has no bias whatsoever. For example, is resisting marriage a 'strong' or 'weak' trait? Depends on your own experiences, opinions, and views, isn't it. Or, to bay at the full moon because you can't marry your Protestant lover - is that 'weakness', 'foolishness', 'madness' or 'strong love'? Or to drown your own kin (who has committed a heinous rape) when he is already beaten and weak by pushing his head into the water from the back without his ability to defend himself - is that 'righteous', 'weak', 'strong', 'anarchic', 'cowardly', brave' or what?The movie presents what it presents. If you choose to draw any conclusion from it, then know it comes entirely from you, and don't merit your own intentions to that of the movie's intention.Watch it with open eyes and just let it rinse into you, and wash out whatever washes out.

The winner of the 1995 Oscar for a foreign language film has, I think, been unfairly derided on political grounds. Antonia, called Antonia's Line in English, is a Dutch feminist film and has drawn criticism just for that. Sexists love to paint feminists with one brush based on a lunatic fringe, but as a male film watcher I can testify that there's nothing about the film that should be offensive to men. A villain rapist is a man, but rapists exist in life and there are plenty of men in the film who are decent. The women in the family never marry, but many of them still love men and keep them close in their lives. What really scares closet sexists is that the women in this movie are strong characters- even if it's in a positive way, that just won't sit will with those still wishing for a male-run society. The real objective of feminism is for men and women to share power, not make females the sole power.Antonia's Line (a title that makes more sense than the original title of Antonia, because it better captures the focus of the movie), is a fine film that includes colourful, interesting characters, some funny moments and some compelling drama. For example, Thérèse is an interesting character because of her abnormal intelligence, and when the narrator announces she's been raped it's a shocking, disheartening moment (even though we don't actually see that rape). There's also some humour in Danielle announcing she wants a baby but also having a lack of interest in a husband, and in how her own mother arranges for her to get laid. There are lots of characters for a fairly short film, but most of even the minor characters have some appeal. This movie deserved its Oscar and it deserves to be seen.

This is an epic movie. The movie plays out intensely, gripping attention right from the first frame. It affirms life in its story of death. Its complex in its simplicity, its comic in its seriousness, its subtle in its gravity. It depicts a life lived well and fully. It questions norms and it glorifies personal values. It gives the heart the mandate to lead the way. It may jerk people to take a fresh new look at their way of living their life. It may seem feminist or iconoclastic, but at the same time its very traditional and conservative in its message of family togetherness and social interdependence. I loved it!