Review of Antonia’s Line (1995)
Seen in 2019.
A Dutch small-town feminist’s five decades of almost uninterrupted success.
I like long-term chronicles and I was not disappointed. There’s a lot of good incidental comedy, starting with Bas’s intensely transactional proposal, transparently doomed under these premises. There’s a Frank Zappa LP on a wall as low-budget period set dressing. Given that the main objective is a cozy fantasy of liberty and vivaciousness more streamlined than Agda’s story in Loving Couples (1964), the tragic side is naturally worse than the comic. Kromme Vinger is not developed enough for his death to feel important, and the men’s revenge against purely evil Pitte is merely a symptomatic extension of peaceful Antonia’s hatred. The characters are uncomplicated and the melodious music envelops it all in a haze of life, idealized.
References here: Everlasting Moments (2008), Little Women (2019).