Antonia et ses filles

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.

What a wonderful, gorgeous, beautiful creation. Antonia's Line is a bittersweet embrace of life in all it's manifestations. It's one of those rare movies that is just as incredible as a great book. A true work of art. I've seen it four times, and would see it again.

Rarely does a movie embrace life as fully as "Antonia" (also known Antonia's Line). It was the deserving winner of the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1995. Quirky, unexpected, funny, frightening, and ultimately beautiful, Antonia's line is a portrait of hope that successfully escapes being saccharine. There are moments of violence and despair, but beauty endures. It portrays 3 generations of independent women, and the matriarch of their unusual family, Antonia. Antonia left her small village before WWII and returns years later with her grown daughter. Antonia has an opinion on everything, and smiles as she points out the colorful village characters to her cosmopolitan artist daughter who is amused by everyone from the town busy-bodies to the tradition of drunk men peeing on the church wall. However, Antonia manages to carve out a place for herself by embracing love when she finds it, and opening her arms to the needy outcasts and oddballs that are victimized by cruel villagers.

This film also offers a wonderfully refreshing depiction of love in all shapes and sizes-- connections between mentally handicapped loners, romance between women, elderly romance. It does not sensationalize these unusual couplings, rather it highlights the giddy delight that is two human beings connecting. This is truly a movie about self-made "family," lonely souls that find each other and live together with loyalty. However, one graphic rape scene and a few other (naratively essential) scenes of violence make it inappropriate for young or sensitive children. It is overall, however, not gritty or depressing. Rather it is a portrait of hope made more real by addressing the presence of shadows.

Both "My life as a Dog" and "American Beauty" are reminiscent of the kind of beauty and humor you can expect from this film.

I found Antonia's Line to be a wonderful expression of what is endearing and enduring in the human spirit. It was a truly lovely story, clever character development, warmly delivered. I can understand how some may not understand or enjoy this film. It flies in the face of convention, but that is its beauty. Some would fear the freedoms this film demonstrates.

Love and acceptance abound, in a timeless manor. I like the way it offered a different definition of family, one where diversity is an asset, guarded by respect.

This is one of the greatest stories to come across the screen.

This film was like taking a trip to an alternate universe and being given the gift of living a full, rich, and rewarding life there. For the most part, everyone is redeemed &/or fulfilled, although no one escapes tragedy, and some definitely have it worse than most. There was a line from the narrator, something to the effect of how "timed flowed into itself and wanted nothing more than to do so," (I am paraphrasing), and that, to me summed up the lovely slow pace of this film. The characters were real and quite sympathetic. I didn't find it to be agenda-driven like the previous commenter did. I simply thought it was a movie about Antonia, a kind and realistic woman, and those whom she loved.