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Marleen Gorris

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Marleen Gorris
Marleen Gorris (1982)
Born (1948-12-09) 9 December 1948 (age 75)
Roermond, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Known forAntonia's Line (1995)

Marleen Gorris (born 9 December 1948) is a Dutch former 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]

Early life

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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

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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]

In June 2017, Gorris announced she had retired from making films. Two years prior, she was diagnosed with a burnout after she had collapsed while on set shooting Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle. Mike van Diem, like Gorris an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film winner, would later take over as director.[19]

Legacy

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In 2012 the London Feminist Film Festival chose A Question of Silence as their 'Feminist Classic' and celebrated it with a 30th anniversary screening of the film.[20] It has since been screened frequently in the UK, most recently at University College London University College London in 2019 [21] and at the Leeds International Film Festival in 2023.[22]

Personal life

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Marleen Gorris came out as a lesbian after the success of Antonia's Line.[23] Her partner, Maria Uitdehaag, served in its production as first assistant director, and was mentioned by Gorris in her Academy Award acceptance speech.[23][4]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Director Producer Writer Notes
1982 A Question of Silence (De stilte rond Christine M.) Yes Yes Golden Calf for Best Film
1984 Broken Mirrors (Gebroken spiegels) Yes Yes [24]
1990 The Last Island Yes Yes
1995 Antonia's Line (Antonia) Yes Yes [25][26][27][28][29]
1997 Mrs Dalloway Yes Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Screenplay [30][31][32][33]
2000 The Luzhin Defence Yes [34]
2003 Carolina Yes
2009 Within the Whirlwind Yes [2]

Television

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Year Title Director Producer Writer Notes
1983 De geest van gras (The Spirit of Grass) Yes TV movie
1993 Verhalen van de straat (Stories of the Street) Yes Yes 5 episodes
2007 The L Word Yes Episode: "Livin' La Vida Loca"
2011 Rembrandt en ik (Rembrandt and Me) Yes Yes Director: 4 episodes; Writer: 1 episode

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Work Result Notes
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 [35]
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

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References

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  1. ^ "Marleen Gorris". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b Scheib, Ronnie (9 February 2010). "Within the Whirlwind". Variety. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Academy Awards Database Search Results For "Antonia's Line" | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database: Marleen Gorris". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  5. ^ a b "BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Golden Calves". Nederlands Film Festival. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Johnson, William (1985). "Review: Broken Mirrors". Film Quarterly. 39 (1): 43–44. doi:10.2307/1212283. ISSN 0015-1386. JSTOR 1212283.
  15. ^ a b c d 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. ^ "Marleen Gorris na burnout gestopt met filmen". L1 Nieuws (in Dutch). 15 June 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  20. ^ "FEMINIST CLASSIC – A Question of Silence". Independent Cinema Office. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  21. ^ "AS Screening: A Question of Silence by Marlene's Gorris". University College London. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  22. ^ "A Question of Silence". Leeds Film. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  23. ^ a b 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)
  24. ^ Canby, Vincent (4 March 1987). "FILM: 'BROKEN MIRRORS'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  25. ^ Thomas, Kevin (2 February 1996). "'Antonia's Line' Draws on Strength of Family, Women". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  26. ^ Variety Staff (1 January 1995). "Antonia's Line". Variety. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ "Antonia's Line". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  29. ^ Gates, Anita (16 March 2003). "MOVIES: CRITIC'S CHOICE". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  30. ^ "'Mrs. Dalloway': Truths of All Lives, Comfortable or Not". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  31. ^ "Mrs Dalloway | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  32. ^ "A Film of One's Own". The New Yorker. 9 February 1998. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  33. ^ 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.
  34. ^ 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.
  35. ^ "'MABOROSI' CAPTURES TOP FILM FEST PRIZE". Chicago Tribune. 27 October 1995. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
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