3 0 ▼ m a rch 1, 1090 ▼ ju st out
OUT AT THE MOVIES
► N ew purchase
► Refinance/cash out
► 100% equity loans
► Pre-approved loans
A ntonia ’ s L ine
► Pre-qualification by phone or fax
Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans,
Jan Decleir
► Residential, commercial & investment property
Directed by Marleen Gorris
► Appointments at your convenience
utch film m ak er M arleen G orris has
proven with each of her films that femi­
nism can shape art that is powerful, politi­
cally charged, intelligent and stunningly original.
Her first film, A Question of Silence, which portrays
three shoppers who spontaneously bludgeon a chas­
tising store manager to death and mutilate his geni­
tals with a piece o f glass, is perhaps the most radical
D
66 I'm available when you are
Office
274-1500
Evenings/Weekends
780-1561
Colleen Weed
\t 4 My
More Space, Merchandise and Open Longer
We've Moved!
Open Mon-Sat 10-9, Sun 11-6
4 2 5 8 $E Hawthorne @ corner of SE 43rd
2 1/2 blocks west of our original location
(SOS) 2 3 6 -0 5 0 5
home
is financially the right
thing to do.
Call me today at 2254115
i nema
film ever made about women who kill. These women,
who are strangers prior to the killing, kill because
they despair— not because they’re psychotic, and
kill together because their oppression has a com­
m on so u rc e — p a tria rc h y .
Prison is their escape, and they
laugh in the face o f the justice
system that tries to declare them
insane.
Similarly, Gorris’ second
film, Broken Mirrors, por­
trayed a woman who starves
herself to death while being
held captive in a basement,
rather than be executed by her
serial killer kidnapper.
W hew ! This is perhaps why
fans o f her early work are re­
ally shocked by her latest film,
Antonia’s Line, which in com­
parison is totally vanilla. But a
certain lightheartedness and
humor don’t negate the integ­
rity that has become Gorris’
signature.
Antonia’s Line, nominated
for this year’s Academy Award
for Best Foreign Film, follows
the extraordinary daughters,
granddaughters and great-
granddaughters o f matriarch
Antonia, who returns to the
village of her birth to claim the
farm she has inherited. She is
determined to live her life and
raise her family on her own
terms. As the years go by, her
“family” grows to include sev­
eral lost souls and strays, along Victoria Abril
with her beautiful and compli­
cated offspring.
I know what you are thinking: Even in France
Ironically, G orris’ most
mainstream film contains her things aren 7 so progressive that a mainstream
most central lesbian character:
audience is going to embrace just any film
Antonia’s daughter, Danielle.
about a dyke, a bisexual and eventually a
When Danielle falls in love
threesome, who also have children together.
with the local school-mistress,
you can feel the sparks down to
what happened in France with French Twist.
the tips of your toes! For this reason and many more,
I know what you are thinking: Even in France
Antonia’s Line is a total delight. It’s a thinking
things aren’t so progressive that a mainstream audi­
feminist’s fantasy for all o f us who don’t mind
ence is going to embrace just any film about a dyke,
finding a little inspiration out at the movies.
a bisexual and eventually a threesome, who also
have children together. But the hook is that on top of
rench wist
the talent it’s a well-written, funny script with a
universal upbeat message about how love can change
Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko, Alain Chabat
your life. And the lesbian character is so real that
directed by Josiane Balasko
Josiane Balasko has caused many journalists to
exclaim that they can’t believe she’s not the real
hat happened to all those feminist-PC-
thing! (Sorry, everyone— she’s not.) No doubt some
hippie lesbians from the late ’60s-early
dykes will wish Loli’s husband was out o f the
’70s, and how have they adapted to the
picture, but the happy ending, which will be some­
dyke-chic ’90s? Perhaps they all own property in
what uncomfortable forgay and straight alike, makes
San Francisco, or they all became therapists? But
the film even more progressive. French Twist is
how would we know, since these are not the women
definitely my first favorite film o f 1996!
that Hollywood— or even queer independents— are
making films about?
Reviews by Cathay Che, who is a regular
This is perhaps why the romantic comedy French
contributor to POZ magazine and Time Out in
Twist was made in Europe, and it’s one movie I
NeW York
wouldn’t mind seeing a big studio rip off and
F
Wndermere
^ g j p l Windermere Cronin & Caplan Realty Group, I n c . J M P |
. . 2 2 5 -J .U 5 .* .V M .4 9 7 -5 2 U • 2 0 7 8 NW .Everett,St.
♦
»n
T
W
Anderson
9
remake here in the States. The story goes a little
something like this: Marijo (Balasko) is a middle-
aged stone butch dyke, driving around in a bright
yellow VW van with a huge sunflower painted on
the side. She’s hit the road to get away from her last
dead-end relationship, but she runs out of gas in an
affluent suburb and knocks on the door of an irre­
pressibly sexy housewife, Loli (Abril). After Marijo
fixes the plumbing, Loli asks her to stay for dinner,
and sparks fly. When Loli finds out that her hus­
band, Laurent (Chabat), has been cheating on her
with every tramp in town, she feels the time is right
for Marijo to move in and become part o f her family.
T wo o f Europe ’ s most popular actresses— Abril,
the sexy siren best known to Americans through the
films of Pedro Almodovar ( Women on the Verge of
a Nervous Breakdown, High Heels) and Balasko,
who also wrote and directed the film— play the
film’s leads. Can you imagine two of Hollywood’s
top actresses (say Jessica Lange and Demi Moore or
Jodie Foster and Julia Roberts) taking on such roles?
And if they did, can you imagine the film becoming
a surprise box office hit? Unlikely, but this is exactly
Por» land. O R 972091
M * .< y /%v\ Y
•'
t sAN
* y V \
t i '\
'V i
i t " V ft*, 'y » >•»•*»1 * T lA7 V f V -|V >
PHOTO BY AUSTIR MORRISON
Your Community Home Loan Resource