Review of Antonia's Line

One of the first things that reminded me of Marleen Gorris's film is that its reminiscent of "Cinema Paradiso" as we watch these characters in this town over the span of about 50 years. This story has a woman named Antonia (Willeke Van Ammelrooy) who along with her daughter Danielle (Els Dottermans) come back to her Dutch village after the war to bury her dead mother. After that she stays and along the course of time different people come to live with them as it becomes a sort of commune run by Antonia. A retarded woman is getting raped and Danielle stabs the rapist with a pitchfork and the woman comes to live with them. As Danielle gets older she decides to get pregnant and Antonia takes her to the city to shop for the proper donor. One of the local farmers comes to court Antonia and asks her hand in marriage but she says no, but she also says he can do chores and once a week they will get together for sex. Danielle's daughter becomes a child genius and her teacher gives her extra lessons. Danielle and the teacher become lesbian lovers and form a strong relationship. The film has some truly dark moments like two rapes being depicted and one to a young girl. Gorris does an admiral job of letting the viewer get to know each character. This is not a 3 hour epic but when the film ends you have gotten to know every character pretty well. While we see Antonia and Danielle go to church, this film seems to relish the idea of getting together with people and exchanging ideas and thoughts. Antonia genuinely loves people and being around them at all times. Her spirit is evident from the first moment she appears on screen. As the film continues on we witness Antonia handing down her spirit to her daughter, then to her granddaughter, then to her great granddaughter. It even passes on to the other characters that come to live with her. The make-up is superb and towards the end of the film we see Antonia when she was younger and then a second later as she is as an 80 year old woman. Its a very good job and you don't notice the big change until that scene pops up. Good editing gives this film a nice flow to it and its beautifully lyrical. The film gives off a good sense of nostalgia and Gorris is definitely a very good storyteller.