Antonia line – 2 stars (average)

A disappointment for me. The postscript read: “Winner of the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and many other prestigious international honors, Antonia’s Line is the remarkable story of a woman building a new life with her daughter in a sleepy town. Dutch after World War II. Earthy, sexy, romantic, and full of laughter and warmth, is a joyous, multi-generational celebration of simple pleasures and enduring passions.”

Shoot, it sounded good to me, but it just didn’t live up to its billing. There is a dark side to this film that the postscript fails to observe or mention. Yes, there is some sex, some romance, some horrible moments, some tender moments, and some multi-generational moments.

There’s also a daughter who wants (and has) a baby, but doesn’t need a husband or father for her newborn (proving, I suppose, that Hollywood wasn’t first to go here).

There are two brutal rapes of children (which, of course, adds to the wholesomeness of a wannabe family movie). There’s downright cruelty mixed in with all the fun and laughter. There is a cold-blooded murder.

But perhaps the most harrowing issue is the complete lack of spiritual development of anyone in this film, including a priest, who manages to have sex with a young woman in a confessional (no wonder Hollywood has given this film an Academy Award). Academy).

The people in this movie don’t believe in God, they’re just passing the time until the end. Whatever your religious beliefs, having some spiritual development is a very good idea in this world, and it is possible to have spiritual development without practicing a religion.

In the Bible the word fool does not mean someone who is stupid, but someone who orders his life as if there were no God.

This would be a much more meaningful movie if the person who wrote the screenplay recognized the existence of a power greater than the passing of time, simple pleasures, and enduring passions. I didn’t become a better person by watching this movie.

If you want to see a much better foreign film with subtitles than this Academy Award-winning film, try The Chorus (Les Chroistes in French), an absolutely magnificent film by first-time director Christophe Barratier, which, to my knowledge, has not won no prize. any.

The Aviator – 2 stars (average)

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Howard Hughes in a film that captures Hughes’ life from his arrival in Hollywood to the onset of his illness that forced him into seclusion for the rest of his life.

Hughes was a billionaire who was also a great visionary in the field of aviation and a filmmaker of some note. His obsessive-compulsive disorder cut short his contribution to the world, but not his impact.

DeCaprio is nothing short of sensational at this acting task. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, but lost to Jamie Foxx in Ray, the Ray Charles Story. I haven’t seen Ray yet, but I think DiCaprio couldn’t have won the Oscar even if he had played Foxx.

The reason is that The Aviator gets off to a rocky start and is not nearly as funny a movie as a movie about Ray Charles, who is loved by anyone who has heard his music and story.

The beginning of this movie shows his mother planting the seed in his mind that he will never be safe from germs, which he buys and affects him for the rest of his natural life. Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Katharine Hepburn in the film.

The Aviator had 11 Oscar nominations and five wins, including Blanchett’s. Despite the performances of DiCaprio and Blanchett, I can’t give this movie a 3 even though I mean to; the film was simply too negative and too graphic in its presentation.

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley