Film and Film

“Antonia” Marleen Gorris, 1995 –

Academy Award for best foreign language film.

Be able to combine a special family saga of four generations from a Dutch farm, with all a feminine and feminist worldview at the same time, along with a very dynamic, lively and slight story as well as the respective tragedies, including a script with a series of different characters, some more constructed than others, with the predominance of a strong and sure woman with a big heart; all this coupled with a good visual talent for storytelling with images and positive recurrence of some planes as axes of the same story, it becomes a huge set of factors that it is not very common to see on the big screen now. So when this combination of elements happens, it is the filmic art which wins along with the spectator who likes good cinema, and the realization as such can even win an Oscar. That is the case of the film "Antonia", a compendium of half a century without leaving a farm located in the Dutch countryside, which needs a special skill to manage the times in which the same story is taking place, because otherwise generates an endless succession of events with a duration of several hours, or failing that, a short and confusing narrative. This is one of the merits of the screenplay, written by the same Director, where she printed all the conception immersed in the film, the characters with feminine and feminist dialogues; and also the discussion that keeps with the Catholic religion incarnate in a special priest amidst in a rivalry with the main character and the way she resolves the issue. A vision standing from women on human behavior and in particular of the manly world of such violence and aggressiveness of men, without falling in stereotypes or worse, drawing and creating a series of "the bad" in the extreme when it comes to recreate environments and characters of male character, that does not always pose this downside, and that here in this film does not happen because of the care of Marleen Gorris, contrasting with other individuals more sensitive and gentle, as those who are close to the heart of its protagonist Antonia.

Thus describes the events of four generations around the figure of a very special woman with open and maternal heart, who does not forget her status of woman or head of a special family clan. A story punctuated by humorous and moments full of wit, with the contribution of peculiar characters that generate a light rhythm to the story, to the various events some strong and dramatic, but which nevertheless are very human and full of feeling, warm and loving moments. A nice and lively air travels through the film from beginning to end.

Describes images, some with very short sequences and primarily visual in nature as for example, the unusual character who howls at the Moon and generates laughter and burlesque; There is a real and measured talent to record events or sequences with economy of dialogues and allowing that the visual narrates with the sober images that are kept in the tape.

The repetition of the general plan where all gather for lunch on Sundays always announces new developments and serves as a common thread of the very fact of how it grows and develops the familiar world of Antonia, all of which are incorporated to this table full of food and affection, tolerance and acceptance. They are, apparently, small details but with a little more care and refined vision, allow a greater enjoyment of this successful achievement.