Antonia's Line

Original title: Antonia

1995
R
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

9.6K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:35

1 Video

31 Photos

Comedy Drama

A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

9.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 8 wins & 10 nominations total

Trivia
The film winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was somewhat serendipitous. The film's reception in its native Netherlands had been somewhat lukewarm, and most of the attention had gone to Little Sister (1995) (which had also beaten Antonia's Line (1995) as Best Picture at the Dutch Film Festival that year). However, since Little Sister (1995) had not been officially released in theaters at the time, it couldn't qualify as the Dutch submission for the Oscars. Fortunately, Antonia's Line (1995) enjoyed much more critical success abroad, and especially the positive reception in the USA was felt to have contributed to the film winning the Oscar.

Quotes
Verteller: The proverb is wrong. Time does not heal all wounds. It merely softens the pain and blurs the memories.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Broken Arrow/Black Sheep/Beautiful Girls/A Midwinter's Tale/Antonia's Line (1996)

Soundtracks
My Blue Heaven
Written by George Whiting and Walter Donaldson
Performed by Dora van der Groen and Centrum Nieuwe Koormuziek

User reviews85

Review

Featured review

9/10

It's not anti-male, anti-family, anti-religion

I think the other viewer got it wrong when they said the movie suggested "who needs men?". This movie contains every kind of relationship combination imaginable-- the message was anybody can find love. People also have children under all sorts of circumstances in this movie. The characters are in a family like relationship to each other because in a lot of cases they don't fit in with their family or the norm. Not to mention it explores the relationship of a woman with her family--- her mother, her daughter and her granddaughter. This movie explores religion and atheism, namely the hypocrisy of religion and the emptiness and search for meaning when one doesn't have religion. This movie explores a lot of themes- love, life, death, good vs. evil, and meaning. If all a person got out of it was that it was anti-family and anti-religion and anti-male, then they have lived a pretty sheltered life and won't get "it" anyway.