Marleen Gorris

Last updated

Marleen Gorris
Marleen Gorris (1982).jpg
Marleen Gorris (1982)
Born (1948-12-09) 9 December 1948 (age 74)
Roermond, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Occupation(s) Film director, screenwriter
Known for Antonia's Line (1995)

Marleen Gorris (born 9 December 1948) is a Dutch writer and director. Gorris is known as an outspoken feminist and supporter of gay and lesbian issues which is reflected in much of her work. [1] [2] Her film, Antonia's Line, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995 [3] [4] making her first woman to do so in this category. She has won 2 Golden Calf awards and received numerous other nominations, including one nomination for BAFTA Awards. [5] [6]

Contents

Early life

Marleen Gorris was born on 9 December 1948 in Roermond in the Netherlands. [7] She was born to Protestant, working-class parents in the Catholic southern part of the Netherlands. Gorris studied drama at home and abroad. [7] She studied drama at the University of Amsterdam and has an MA in Drama from the University of Birmingham, England.

She began working as a filmmaker with almost no previous experience in the cinema and made an auspicious writing and directorial debut in 1982 with A Question of Silence . [7] The Dutch government provided the funding to finance the project. [8]

Career

It was not until the age of 30 that Gorris began writing scripts. She took her first effort to the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, hoping to interest her in directing it. Akerman, however, told Gorris that she must make the film herself. The result, A Question of Silence (1982), caused considerable international controversy telling a story through the eyes of a female psychiatrist whose job it was to question three women who had spontaneously murdered a man for the sole reason of him being a man. [9] Some interpreted the film's feminist message to be about pent up "female rage" [10] and dissatisfaction with a patriarchal system that boiled over the surface while other claimed it went too far and couldn't be taken seriously. [7] [11] The film was well received for its quality but still shocked many who watched it for its lack of condemnation of the murderers. [10] [11] At the Netherlands' Film Festival in 1982 she was awarded the Golden Calf for Best Feature Film for A Question of Silence, a feat she would repeat in 1995 winning Best Direction for her well known film Antonia's Line . [12]

Soon after the success of her first film, Gorris released her second: Broken Mirrors (1984). The film hold similarities to A Question of Silence both in production and in theme though many found Broken Mirrors less impactful. [13] [14] [15] Large portions of the cast and crew, including the leading women, crossed over to work on this with her. [15] The film follows two parallel plots. The first of women working in a brothel called Club Happy House and the second of a woman kidnapped and starved to death by an unnamed man for his pleasure. [16] Broken Mirrors explores female viewpoint and experiences just like A Question of Silence, though this time with a larger focus on the oppressive nature of the patriarchy and power dynamics within it. [15] The ending of the film proposed that a defense against these powers are unity and solidarity among women [13] [15] though this sentiment did not resonate for everyone. [14] [17] She did not make another film until The Last Island (1990). The film yet again tells a story of violence where a group of plane crash survivors are marooned on an island. the men turn on each other until only the two women remain alone and stranded. [14]

In 1995, Gorris had her greatest international success to-date with Antonia's Line. Starring Willeke van Ammelrooy, the story of an independent woman and her female descendants was not as radical as the director's previous work, although a number of critics complained that the men in the film were portrayed as either ineffectual idiots or potential rapists. However, critical support for the film was overwhelming, and it was honored with a number of international awards, including a Golden Calf and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. [7]

Her next film was Mrs Dalloway (1997), based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, with a cast that included Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, and Rupert Graves. It earned a number of international honors, including an Evening Standard British Film Award. [7] She followed this movie with The Luzhin Defence (2000), based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Starring John Turturro and Emily Watson, it tells the story of the love affair between an eccentric chess champion and a strong-willed society woman. [7] Carolina (2003), starring Julia Stiles, Shirley MacLaine, and Alessandro Nivola, was released direct-to-video in 2005.

Gorris's 2009 film Within the Whirlwind , starring Emily Watson, was not picked up for distribution. According to Watson, "It was delivered pretty much the day the market crashed so nobody was buying anything." [18]

Personal life

Marleen Gorris came out as a lesbian after the success of Antonia's Line. [19] Her partner, Maria Uitdehaag, served in its production as first assistant director, and was mentioned by Gorris in her Academy Award acceptance speech. [19] [4]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleDirectorProducerWriterNotes
1982 A Question of Silence (De stilte rond Christine M.)YesYes Golden Calf for Best Film
1984Gebroken spiegels (Broken Mirrors)YesYes [20]
1990The Last IslandYesYes
1995 Antonia's Line (Antonia)YesYes [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
1997 Mrs Dalloway Yes Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Screenplay [26] [27] [28] [29]
2000 The Luzhin Defence Yes [30]
2003 Carolina Yes
2009 Within the Whirlwind Yes [2]

Television

YearTitleDirectorProducerWriterNotes
1983De geest van gras (The Spirit of Grass)YesTV movie
1993Verhalen van de straat (Stories of the Street)YesYes5 episodes
2007 The L Word YesEpisode: "Livin' La Vida Loca"
2011Rembrandt en ik (Rembrandt and Me)YesYesDirector: 4 episodes; Writer: 1 episode

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResultNotes
1997 BAFTA Best Film Not in the English Language Antonia's Line Nominated [5]
1995 Golden Calf Best Director of a Feature Film Antonia's Line Won [6]
Silver Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival Best Screenplay Won [31]
Academy Awards Academy Award for Best International Feature Film Won [3]
1982 Golden Calf Best Film A Question of Silence

(De stilte rond Christine M.)

Won [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mai Zetterling</span> Swedish actress (1925–1994)

Mai Elisabeth Zetterling was a Swedish film director, novelist and actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lina Wertmüller</span> Italian director and screenwriter (1928–2021)

Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich, known as Lina Wertmüller, was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films Seven Beauties, The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy, and Swept Away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chantal Akerman</span> Belgian film director (1950–2015)

Chantal Anne Akerman was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and film professor at the City College of New York.

Lynne Littman is an American film and television director and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarethe von Trotta</span> German film director

Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Subsequently, she established a solo career for herself and became "Germany's foremost female film director, who has offered the most sustained and successful female variant of Autorenkino in postwar German film history". Certain aspects of von Trotta's work have been compared to Ingmar Bergman's features from the 1960s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian Armstrong</span> Australian film director

Gillian May Armstrong is an Australian feature film and documentary director, best known for My Brilliant Career, Little Women, The Last Days of Chez Nous, and Mrs. Soffel. She is a Member of the Order of Australia.

Clara Law Cheuk-yiu is a Hong Kong Second Wave film director who currently resides in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coline Serreau</span> French actress, film director and writer (born 1947)

Coline Serreau is a French actress, film director and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonia Brico</span> Musical artist

Antonia Louisa Brico was a Dutch-born conductor and pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Věra Chytilová</span> Czech director, professor and university educator

Věra Chytilová was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovak government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave film, Sedmikrásky (Daisies). Her subsequent films screened at international film festivals, including Vlčí bouda (1987), which screened at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival, A Hoof Here, a Hoof There (1989), which screened at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival, and The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992), which screened at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival. For her work, she received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Medal of Merit and the Czech Lion award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tahmineh Milani</span> Iranian film director and producer

Tahmineh Milāni is an Iranian feminist activist, and film director and producer.

Randa Jo Haines is a film and television director and producer. Haines started her career as a script supervisor on several low-budget features in the 1970s, including Let's Scare Jessica to Death and The Groove Tube. She is best known for directing the critically acclaimed feature film Children of a Lesser God (1986), which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin, for which Matlin won the 1987 Academy Award as Best Actress, and which was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including an Academy Award for Best Picture. Haines also won the Silver Bear at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989 she was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2002 she was a member of the jury at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Link</span> German film director and screenwriter

Caroline Link is a German TV and film director and screenwriter.

<i>Antonias Line</i> 1995 film

Antonia's Line is a 1995 Dutch feminist film written and directed by Marleen Gorris. The film, described as a "feminist fairy tale", tells the story of the independent Antonia who, after returning to the anonymous Dutch village of her birth, establishes and nurtures a close-knit matriarchal community. The film covers a breadth of topics, with themes ranging from death and religion to sex, intimacy, lesbianism, friendship and love.

<i>A Question of Silence</i> 1982 film

A Question of Silence is a 1982 Dutch drama film written and directed by Marleen Gorris. It is Gorris' debut film. It stars Edda Barends as Christine M. The plot is about three women, strangers to each other, who kill a man they do not know. It was highly controversial but also highly acclaimed at the time of its release, and is now hailed as a feminist classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin Ireland</span> American actress

Marin Yvonne Ireland is an American actress. Known for her work in theatre and independent films, The New York Times deemed Ireland "one of the great drama queens of the New York stage". She has received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award and a Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiebe van der Vliet</span>

Wiebe van der Vliet-van Trotsenburg is a Netherlands-born film editor, sound editor, and post-production consultant.

<i>Mrs Dalloway</i> (film) 1997 British film

Mrs Dalloway is a 1997 British drama film, a co-production by the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands, directed by Marleen Gorris and stars Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone and Michael Kitchen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Bennett (journalist)</span> American journalist and author

Jessica Bennett is an American journalist and author who writes on gender issues, politics and culture. She was the first gender editor of The New York Times and is a former staff writer at Newsweek and columnist at Time.

Sue Gibson was a British cinematographer known for the film Mrs. Dalloway (1997). She was the first female member of the British Society of Cinematographers, and later became the first female president of the society in 2008.

References

  1. ↑ "Marleen Gorris". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 Scheib, Ronnie (9 February 2010). "Within the Whirlwind". Variety. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Academy Awards Database Search Results For "Antonia's Line" | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database: Marleen Gorris". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  5. 1 2 "BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 "Golden Calves". Nederlands Film Festival. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rebecca Flint Marx (2014). "Marleen Gorris". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 5 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Marleen Gorris Films | Marleen Gorris Filmography | Marleen Gorris Biography | Marleen Gorris Career | Marleen Gorris Awards". FilmDirectorsSite.com. 2013. Archived from the original on 22 June 2013.
  9. ↑ Gorris, Marleen (18 February 1982), De stilte rond Christine M. (Drama), Sigma Film Productions, retrieved 2 October 2022
  10. 1 2 Jackson, Lynne; Jaehne, Karen (1987). "Eavesdropping On Female Voices: A WHO'S WHO OF CONTEMPORARY WOMEN FILMMAKERS". Cinéaste. 16 (1/2): 38–43. ISSN   0009-7004. JSTOR   41687513.
  11. 1 2 Marx, Rick (1 July 1983). "Reviews: A Question of Silence". Boxoffice. 119 (7): 68–69 – via ProQuest.
  12. ↑ "Personen in de Nederlandse filmsector". Nederlands Film Festival (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  13. 1 2 Humm, Maggie (1997). "Chapter 4 AUTHOR/AUTEUR: FEMINIST LITERARY THEORY AND FEMINIST FILM". Feminism and Film. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN   978-0-7486-0908-6. JSTOR   10.3366/j.ctvxcrgms.
  14. 1 2 3 Johnson, William (1985). "Review: Broken Mirrors". Film Quarterly. 39 (1): 43–44. doi:10.2307/1212283. ISSN   0015-1386. JSTOR   1212283.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Jubela, Joan. ""Shattering Conclusions: The Films of Marleen Gorris"". WomaNews. Vol. 6, no. 4. p. 7.
  16. ↑ Gebroken spiegels (1984) - IMDb , retrieved 12 October 2022
  17. ↑ Canby, Vincent (4 March 1987). "FILM: 'BROKEN MIRRORS'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  18. ↑ Rees, Jasper (26 March 2011). "Emily Watson: 'I'm a character actor - who gets laid'". The Daily Telegraph .
  19. 1 2 Redding, Judith M.; Brownworth, Victoria A. (1997). "Marleen Gorris: Uncompromisingly Feminist". Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors (1st ed.). Seattle, Washington: Seal Press. p. 177. ISBN   1-878067-97-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. ↑ Canby, Vincent (4 March 1987). "FILM: 'BROKEN MIRRORS'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  21. ↑ Thomas, Kevin (2 February 1996). "'Antonia's Line' Draws on Strength of Family, Women". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  22. ↑ Variety Staff (1 January 1995). "Antonia's Line". Variety. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  23. ↑ Maslin, Janet (2 February 1996). "FILM REVIEW;A Line of Strong Women With Faith in Destiny". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  24. ↑ "Antonia's Line". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  25. ↑ Gates, Anita (16 March 2003). "MOVIES: CRITIC'S CHOICE". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  26. ↑ "'Mrs. Dalloway': Truths of All Lives, Comfortable or Not". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  27. ↑ "Mrs Dalloway | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  28. ↑ "A Film of One's Own". The New Yorker. 9 February 1998. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  29. ↑ Maslin, Janet (20 February 1998). "FILM REVIEW; Truths of All Lives, Comfortable or Not". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  30. ↑ Scott, A. O. (20 April 2001). "FILM REVIEW; A Genius Pulled Apart By Both Love and Chess". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  31. ↑ "'MABOROSI' CAPTURES TOP FILM FEST PRIZE". Chicago Tribune. 27 October 1995. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.