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ANTONIA, ANNE...AND OSCAR
IT'S A SICK CULTURAL RITUAL, THE OSCARS. But like a great many Americans, I'm glued to the TV during the Academy Awards. Most years, with women's roles as bad as they are, there's nothing much to root for. But this last Oscar night was more exciting than usual for me. This time out, I was actually crossing my fingers in a few categories, and my most fervent boosterism and reserved for two movies most Americans hadn't seen. Both commemorate the lives of strong-willed women. Neither was made in Hollywood.
When ANTONIA'S LINE, the Netherlands's official entry, was nominated for best foreign-language film, I was shocked and thrilled. And when it won, mirabile dictu! - didn't those folks know what they were doing? They bestowed an Oscar upon an overtly feminist film!
Many people will probably watch Antonia's Line, screenwriter-director Marleen Gorris's fourth film, and have no idea how very political it is. A family saga about five generations of villagers in the south of Holland, it can seem as wholesome and homey as the big old farmhouse that is its central locale. But appearances can be deceiving, for this is a film about a modern matriarchy. It chronicles a glorious clan of women who refuse to be controlled by patriarchal custom or male violence.
Foremost among them is Antonia (played by the magnificent Willeke van Ammelrooy), who returns to her native village at the close of World War II to bury her stillvenomous, dying mother and take over the family farm. With the help of her teenage daughter, Danielle (Els Dottermans), she harvests more than crops. A "prodigal daughter," Antonia gathers to her table a community of rebels, out-casts, and life's walking-wounded - all the "others" in her one-tavern town. She makes a new life - and lives it, honorably, by her own rules.
But Antonia's rules don't always jibe with those of other villagers. Everyone assumed, for example, that a widow would want a new husband. Farmer Bas (Jan Decleir), himself a widower, is especially hopeful on this score. He proposes a practical merger of local farm families. His five sons, he tells her, need a mother. "Yes," Antonia agrees, "but I don't need your sons."...