Cinéclub Podcast #17 is a conversation with Sue Thornham on the Dutch feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris. Gorris made her debut with A Question of Silence in 1982. A provocative feminist film which uses and subverts popular genre conventions, as you’ll hear, it stirred up controversy amongst critics, particularly here in the UK. It was the first in what she envisaged as a series of four films, and was followed by Broken Mirrors, The Last Island and Antonia’s Line.

The latter brought Gorris more commercial attention, attracting positive press, widespread distribution and even winning the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1996. She went on to adapt Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, the first of a string of English-langiage films, but her later work was poorly distributed and fell into obscurity. Until recently, her early work, too, has been largely unavailable. Thankfully, her first three were lovingly restored and reissued by Cult Epics in 2023, and are now available again on DVD and Blu-Ray. Gorris herself has now retired from filmmaking.

Sue Thornham is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex in Brighton, where she taught for many years and was, in fact, one of my tutors when I studied for my Master there. I mention that because it was in Sue’s Feminism and Film class that I first saw Broken Mirrors, when I was doing my Masters there, so I have her to thank for introducing me to Gorris’ work. In July this year Sue released an excellent book on Gorris. It’s called Marleen Gorris: Practices of Resistance and is published by Edinburgh University Press.

Sue and I talked through Gorris’ career, including her tendency to play with genre, why her films rattled critics, themes of communities amongst women and the possibility of resisting patriarchy, the success of Antonia’s Line and the impact it might have had on her increasingly obscure later films, and more.

I should warn you that there may be plot spoilers, but I would also say that these are not really the sort of films that rely on conventional plot twists and I don’t think there’s anything in this podcast that could really spoil the films but, now you know.

Chapters

* A Question of Silence (1982) - 00:09:39

* Broken Mirrors (1984) - 00:16:49

* The Last Island (1990) - 00:25:06

* Antonia’s Line (1995) - 00:30:59

* Mrs. Dalloway (1997) and The Luzhin Defence (2000) - 00:37:39

* Carolina (2003) - 00:41:30

* Within the Whirlwind (2009) - 00:44:01

You can also find this episode on…

* Apple Podcasts

* Pocket Casts

* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.

Shownotes

* Sue Thornham’s book Marleen Gorris: Practices of Resistance

* The link has both print editions and the free Open Access PDF and ePub

* The restored Marleen Gorris Triology at Cult Epics, including A Question of Silence, Broken Mirrors and The Last Island

* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine

* 52 pages w/ articles on cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film The Third Lover’ and some pieces on punks in cinema. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £3.50 plus postage.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com