I would like to tell you about my three favorite movies. I was recently re-acquainted with one because Netflix was streaming it. I had forgotten how much I loved that film. So, without further ado, my three favorite movies are The Shawshank Redemption, Men In Black and Antonia’s Line. You probably know the first two, bein’ big Hollywood-type movies and all. I became familiar with Antonia’s Line while watching the 1996 Oscars. That really famous tearjerker The Postman was nominated for Best Foreign Film. I loved it and I thought it was going to win for sure. And then this other film, this unknown Dutch film, comes in and wins the award, and I was all like, “Wait… what?” Flash forward about a month. I’m in Massachusetts with my mother for a long weekend. We had a evening with nothing planned, so we decided to go to the indie/foreign movie theater, where Antonia’s Line was playing. I saw it, and I then agreed that it was the Best Foreign Film of the Year, definitely the best film I saw that year. It’s a Dutch film that takes place in a rural farming village, and it tracks the life of a woman named Antonia and her family over about fifty years. You get to know the other villagers and their idiosyncrasies, as well as Antonia and the people that swirl in and out of her storied life, kind of like a maypole dance. I was in high school when I saw it, and unlike most American films of that time (and this time as well, who are we kidding) there was no puritanical undertones of any kind. This movie starts right after WWII, and people do things that are frowned upon still now (getting pregnant out of wedlock, homosexuality, etc.) and the most of the characters in the film are okay with this. This blew my mind. I was so accustomed to Hollywood’s standard punishment of the sinners in all their films. This was like a revelation. The other great thing about Antonia’s Line is that I would say about six characters don’t talk. They just don’t have any lines, or just one line. But they are integral to the story line and they really stir up emotions in you. As long as it is streaming on Netflix, I recommend you watch it. And you might want to watch The Shawshank Redemption and Men In Black again too, while you’re at it.