Skip to content
Menu
  • Home
  • Articles & Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Music reviews
    • Movie reviews
    • Book & zine reviews
  • Contact
Menu

Woman in a Twilight Garden (movie review)

Posted on January 25, 2019

What I like in my movie odyssey is the pleasant find now and then of a movie I would never think of looking for, but found because I was looking for something completely different. Woman in a Twilight Garden (or, in its original title, Een vrouw tussen hond en wolf, A Woman between dog and wolf, a 1979 movie) is one example of it.

Can you find young JCVD here?

I’ve found this nice flick while looking for a first movie Jean-Claude Van Damme was in, and that’s the movie. He’s in just for a few seconds as one of the moviegoers in the cinema, but hey, if you want to cover good ol’ JCVD’s career, it’s important one. We all have our start somewhere.

I haven’t expected this co-production between Belgium and France (although Dutch spoken) drama being of any interest to me, actually, I was more like “OK, let’s get through with it” to tick “seen” in JCVD filmography. To my surprise, I’ve found more than a decent drama, and came to like it a lot.

The setting of the story is Belgian city of Antwerp, where Lieve (Marie-Christine Barrault) lives with her husband Adriaan (Rutger Hauer). It’s 1940s and he is a proud Flemish nationalistic idealist, standing for his country and nation, eventually going to the Eastern Front to fight against the Communist Russia as a part of Belgian Waffen SS. Lieve stays at home and try to just go by until she is forced to take in a Resistance fighter François. As it’s quite often a case, she eventually falls in love with him, which – in turn – helps her to avoid the fate of many of those deemed Nazi colaborators in then newly liberated Belgium (and we can have a glimpse of the fate of some). Adriaan returns from the Eastern Front and after spending some time in the prison, he’s back home.

Lieve is still torn between the love for Adriaan and the love for François, but she decides to stay with Adriaan.

What the movie describes really well, is not only a woman in love with two men, or the idealistic nature of Flemish nationalists, but also the hypocritical attitude of many ordinary folks. Those who suddenly became “resistance fighters” straight after the war has been over, the revenge seeking crowd turning on the women whose only crime was to be a lover of some German soldier, the hypocrisy of Lieve’s own family (the great scene in her uncle’s house about food), the (usual) hypocrisy of the Catholic clergy… many things one could – and would – see in times like those.

I liked it a lot. It might be slow pacing, but I could really relate to all the persons in the movie. And to see Rutger Hauer in one of his early roles was also a bonus.

Yeah, sometimes one stumbles upon an unknown gem. This one is definitely a gem for me.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Drowning: Lost City Riders (a 2008 TV movie review)
  • Fragment Soul – Axiom of Choice (a review)
  • Malauriu – Malauriu (a 2022 album review)
  • Headchoppin’ (interviewing Evil Ed of Choppin’ Headz fanzine)
  • Costectomy/Nyctophagia – “Drone Hunting Missionaries For Sport” (a 2021 split review)
  • VA – Gorenoise megasplit vol. 1
  • Where fire burns eternally: Eternal Kingdom of Fire, volume 5 (digital promo review)
  • USBM wolves: Disperser and Demo 2021 (a demo review)
  • Ryosuke Kiyasu – Continue as Though it were Flowing Water (digital promo review)
  • Institution D.O.L. – The Thelema Tales (CD review)
©2022 | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT