FILM SUMMARY:
Antonia's Line,
Written and
Directed by Marleen Gorris, 1995
ONE. PRODIGAL CHILD'S RETURN
1. An old woman lies in her bed. A narrator recounts this woman's last day. Here name is Antonia. One morning she gets up, goes to a mirror (a trick shot--we did not know we were seeing her in a mirror all along), and finally speaks: "It's time to die." The narrator closes with "She got out of bed to begin the last day of her life."
2. Title up. Tracking shot of beautiful portraits hung inside the house. We watch her move about in the yard (from the inside windows). Then a close shot of her behind a barn window. She looks out. Frame goes out of focus---
3. The young Antonia, a woman in her late 30s, arrives in her home town in Holland with her daughter just after the end of WW II. Antonia and her daughter stand before the iron gate of Antonia's ancestral home. Note how they appear to stand behind bars. They enter the house. It’s a mess. Inside is Antonia’s mother. But the old woman is a raving lunatic. Antonia tries to introduce her daughter, Danielle. But it’s no use. Then the old woman seems to drop dead on her bed. Suddenly a priest arrives to give last rites. But the old woman wakes up, has a moment of lucidity, then tells Antonia, “Late as usual.” Then she drops dead for real.
4. Antonia and Danielle walking on a road. They come into the town. Antonia introduces the characters. We see the blacksmith, Crooked Finger (who never comes out of his house)—we see an insert CU of him smiling, the mad Madonna who bays at the full moon, the Protestant man, Olga the Russian’s café. She mentions a few others. Then the two enter church for her mother’s funeral. As Danielle watches, suddenly she has a vision of the dead woman sitting up in her coffin and singing “My Blue Heaven.” Even Jesus on the cross opens his eyes and looks around. Farmer Bas blinks and the vision is gone.
5. After the service Antonia stops in the pub. She is not greeted warmly by the men in the pub. But she and Danielle stride in and sit right down. One of the landowners, an obnoxious sort, brags about his two thoroughbred sons ready to be sent out for stud and then drags in his retarded daughter and shows her off like a cow. But another landowner takes her out of the room to spare some of this embarrassment. He notices Antonia, and she notices him. The narrator speaks: “And so Antonia and her daughter returned to the cradle of their ancestors.”
TWO. ANTONIA'S EXTENDED FAMILY BEGINS
6. Time passes, and Antonia settles into her house. Danielle begins to visit Crooked Finger, an old reclusive scholar.
7. Antonia picks up her horse at the blacksmiths. She sets off down a lane. She passes a man on a tractor who employs Loony Lips, a retarded man. When one of the school kids teases Loony Lips, the man on the tractor laughs. But Antonia punishes the kid by hanging him up on a tree branch by his coat. Suddenly Loony Lips follows Antonia home much to the outrage of his employer. Antonia has her first convert. As we see him follow her home, they walk past Farmer Bas, a newcomer to the village. He is the same fellow who was kind to the retarded woman earlier.
8. The retarded woman is Deedee, who lives with her father and two brothers. One day Danielle happens to walk past the farm and sees one of Deedee’s brutish brothers harassing her. The brutish brother steps forward, as if to dare Danielle to do or say anything. Danielle walks away.
9. Antonia takes Danielle for a walk among the graves of the cemetery. Suddenly the priest walks past them. Antonia shoots a critique his way—referring to the priest’s failure to provide last rites for Bertie, one of Antonia’s friends, who was killed after being caught hiding Jews during WWII. Danielle looks at the priest, and she has a quick vision of a stone angel knocking the priest over with its wings.
10. One night Farmer Bas gets dressed up and goes over to Antonia’s—he has a marriage proposition. Since he is a widower, and she is a widow. . . Note that he is all dressed up, and she has been washing clothes and wears an apron and a scarf over her hair. She refuses graciously but firmly. She doesn’t need his sons. She doesn’t need a husband. But she offers him some odd jobs. Cut to Farmer Bas and his five sons (of varying ages) carrying food down a path toward her house. Then we see all at a large table set in the front yard of Antonia’s house. It’s a warm, intimate scene. Loony lips is there, as are a few other people from the town.
11. Danielle comes to the rich man’s farm to borrow something. She goes into the barn and comes upon the brutish brother sexually molesting his retarded sister, Deedee. Danielle grabs a pitchfork and attacks him—she hits him in both hands and in his groin, and then she runs away with Deedee. Back home, Antonia helps comfort the poor woman. Then we see them in church on a Sunday, and Deedee is sitting next to Antonia; the brutish brother has bandaged hands. Later, he is shown leaving. His name is Pitte.
THREE. DANIELLE'S
BABY--ANTONIA'S GRANDDAUGHTER
12. Time passes, and at Antonia’s farm Loony Lips and Deedee fall in love. Meanwhile, the woman who bays at the moon continues to drive her downstairs neighbor (the Protestant) mad. Danielle is an artist, and finally she goes off to school. Meanwhile, Antonia plants seeds, and the seasons turn.
13. Danielle is home again, and she announces to her mother she wants a baby. But she doesn’t want a husband. We see them at Crooked Fingers, and they talk about this idea. Antonia takes her daughter to the city, to arrange for finding a man who will have sex with Danielle in order to get her pregnant. They find themselves in a room in t he city with a number of pregnant women. They talk to one of them, and she gives them advice on finding someone who can serve Danielle.
14. Danielle sets up the young man. She poses provocatively when he arrives in his garage (after riding his bike). Soon she is riding on the bike with him, and they end up at a chateau. In a comical scene she has repeated sex with the man, balances on her head to keep the semen moving toward the uterus, and then rejoins her mother who has been waiting outside.
FOUR. ANTONIA'S
LINE CONTINUES TO GROW
15. A church scene. The priest is waxing eloquent about sinful people. He is aiming his hate at Antonia and her daughter. But then the two women walk about, and Farmer Bas joins them. Everyone is aghast at their audacity! Later, Farmer Bas and Antonia plot together to get revenge on the priest. They decide on blackmail. One night they sneak into the church and pull open the curtain to the confessional. Inside is the priest, his head under the dress of a teenaged penitent. They caught him red-handed. The next church service, there he is, preaching a homily of forgiveness and tolerance for others—and his words are especially kind toward women.
16. Time passes. Danielle gives birth to Therese, and several years later Therese has grown into a wise young girl. She seems to understand Crooked Finger better than the adults. We see them in Crooked Finger’s crowded library. Then we see a young priest (not the same one we saw earlier) who has left the church and is ecstatic. He could not reconcile his enjoyment of life with the church’s emphasis on death. There he is working with the harvesters in the field. Then we see Deedee, pregnant, dressed in her white wedding dress and marrying Loony Lips.
17. Then Antonia and Farmer Bas walk alone in a field. They discuss beginning to have a sexual relationship—once a week. Farmer Bas then is shown building a small cabin for them to meet at so they can enjoy their sexual relationship.
18. The seasons pass again and again. Another dinner scene at the table outside on the grass. Now more and more people are there. Suddenly the woman Antonia and Danielle met in the city (she was pregnant), shows up with two of her children. Antonia welcomes them. Her children are Simon and Arletta. The woman from the city is introduced to the former priest, who has become a field hand. She is interested. He comes over to her and touches her pregnant belly. The narrator notes, “The priest lovingly knocked her up every year, and they lived happily ever after.”
FIVE. AND THEN
LOVE BURST OUT EVERYWHERE
19. Now to a church school scene. Antonia and Danielle discover that Therese is a child prodigy. Her teacher, Ms. Anderson, comes in. For Danielle it is love at first sight. She can’t take her eyes off the teacher. Suddenly, Danielle has another vision, and this time she sees Ms. Anderson as the famous Venus arising from the conch shell (as painted by Boticelli). Later, she can’t wait until the teacher comes to tutor Therese. She is nearly distracted, impatient to see the woman. Then a brief scene between Crooked Fingers and Therese as they talk about God. He says, “The tragedy of those who believe in God is that their faith rules their intellect. In my experience, religions often cause death and destruction.”
20. Danielle and Ms. Anderson walk along on the edge of a field. They talk quietly. “And then love burst out everywhere.” Then we see a montage of lovemaking—between various characters, including Antonia and Farmer Bas, Danielle and Ms. Anderson, the priest and Letta, the woman from the city, and Loony Lips and Deedee.
SIX. GETTING RID
OF AN OLD MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY
21. Another table scene in the front yard. Then passage of time. The mad Madonna dies, and the Protestant who loved her holds her dead body and then bays at the moon himself. Then we see Antonia tending a grave in the church cemetery—where her old friend is buried. Here comes the priest. He sees her and walks away. The narrator announces that the rich farmer died.
22. His son Pitte (the brutish brother) returns to claim his inheritance. He is dressed in a military uniform. He greets Danielle and Ms. Anderson on the square—his old intimidating self. Then we see Antonia wave farewell to her daughter Therese and Letta’s boy, Simon. They sit at the back of the bus. The narrator notes that the boy loved Therese, and he would continue to do so all his life. Then we launch into a scene farther into the future—where the college-aged Therese is insulted by her professor for writing 5 pages instead of the required 2—and she walks out of the class after calling him incompetent. Other students see this as an opportunity for protest.
23. Big brutish Pitte shows up in the fields one day and scares poor Deedee just with his presence. We learn from the narrator that Pitte later rapes Therese. Danielle puts her to bed; Deedee comes in to sit with Therese. Notice that Therese is now a young girl again, the age she was when we saw her on the bus with Simon. Cut to Antonia, who takes a shotgun, walks across to the town center, goes into Olga’s bar, and orders Pitte outside. She takes him out to the center of the square. “If I had it in me to kill someone, I would kill you. Instead, I’ll curse you. And my curse will haunt you forever. If you ever return, my curse will savage you to death. If you return, my hate will destroy you. She walks away. Five young men from the bar surround Pitte and beat him senseless. Antonia returns home and Danielle comforts her. Meanwhile, Pitte staggers home, where his younger brother waits for him. The brother then drowns Pitte in the water tank.
SEVEN. ANTONIA'S
GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER
24. Antonia and Farmer Bas alone in their little cabin. Antonia is crying. Back to Crooked Finger and Therese in his library. She cries on his shoulder. Now we see Simon walking with Therese. The narrator notes, “Time does not heal old wounds. It merely softens the pain and blurs the memories.” Suddenly the two young people walking in the wounds are older—Therese is now 20. There’s Therese in the college classroom—but now she is math professor. One of her students admires her—with affection—and cut to them sitting up in bed. We see her trying to be with several men—but all of them she finds wanting. Only Simon, her old school chum, contents her, even though he is not her intellectual equal. She refuses his offer of marriage. “I can’t give you enough attention.”
25. Another huge dinner table scene outside the farmhouse. There is the 20-year-old Therese, and there is Simon. She explains that she is pregnant. Everyone at the table has opposite opinions. Have the baby! Don’t have the baby! So they go to Crooked Finger for a consult. But he can only see the world as one of misery. Why give birth to a child and put that child into this miserable existence? That’s Therese’s answer. She has the child and names it Sarah.
26. Transitional shots. “Time flowed. Season followed season, bumbling over one another as if in their dance, they wanted to end the exhausting round of birth and death.” Now several years have passed, and baby Sarah is a precocious 6-year-old, and they bring her to Crooked Fingers for schooling. She asks him why he doesn’t go out. His answer: “The best thing is not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. The next best thing is to die.” Sarah looks sad. So does everyone else in the room. Cut to the farm house yard. Sarah is swinging, and when she falls everyone runs over to care for her. She is all right. Later, Sarah is writing up on the ledge outside the hayloft. She runs down and shows Antonia what she read. “But Deedee isn’t dead yet,” Antonia says. Sarah runs over to read her poem to Deedee--in her poem she expresses her joy that Deedee isn’t dead.
EIGHT. TIME
CONQUERS TIME
27. People begin to die. Letta dies after giving birth to the 13th child. Her priest leaves for the city. Then the rich farmer’s younger son, who killed Pitte, his elder brother, dies in an accident. Loony Lips is killed in a tractor accident. Deedee is inconsolable. We see Therese at college—she picks up her mail. It’s a letter from Crooked Finger. Her reading the letter is intercut with shots of Crooked Finger finishing the letter, and with shots of Antonia sitting up in her chair as she realizes that Crooked Finger is dead. He hanged himself. Suddenly Therese is there and holds his dead body.
28. Therese withdraws emotionally. Danielle, Crooked Finger’s first pupil, rampages in her studio. Meanwhile, Antonia takes Sarah for a ride on an old horse and tells her, “Nothing dies forever. Something always remains, from which something new grows. So life begins, without knowing where it came from or why it exists.” Why? “Because life wants to.” Is there a heaven? “This is the only dance we dance.” Later, sitting with Deedee and Sarah, Antonia says, “There’s nothing for it. Life’s got to be lived.”
29. The narrator: “Time conquered time.” More poetic words. Then another outdoor dinner scene. Suddenly Crooked Finger enters the yard, then we see Antonia’s mother sit up in her coffin, and then we see the crazy Madonna and the Protestant who loved her. Antonia and Farmer Bas stand up and waltz, and suddenly we see other dead people standing there as if alive. Sarah has been watching this from her perch on the barn, outside the loft. Suddenly the old couple Antonia and Farmer Bas are very old, their hair white. Antonia gestures to Sarah—come here. We see Sarah enter the house, and go to the bedside where Antonia sits. Antonia tells Sarah she knows she will die today. Then we see the family gathered around her. The last words of the narrator also reveal her identity: “And I, Sarah, her great-granddaughter, would not leave the deathbed of my beloved great-grandmother, because I wanted to be with her when the miracle of death parted Antonia’s soul from her formidable body.” Antonia dies.
Graphic: And as this long chronicle reaches its conclusion, nothing has come to an end.”
Copyright, Robert E. Yahnke, © 2001
Professor, General College, Univ. of Minnesota,
Reprinted by permission of the author
for educational use only