Twee vrouwen (1979)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

George Sluizer

Writers:

Harry Mulisch (novel)
Jurriën Rood (writer)

Release Date:

toukokuu 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A Circle of Passion.

Plot:

Woman (Laura) falls in love with girl (Sylvia). They have an affair, but suddenly Sylvia runs off with the ex-husband of Laura...

Plot Keywords:

Homosexuality | Lesbian Kiss | Girlfriend Girlfriend Relationship | Lesbian Scene | Lesbian

Cast

Bibi Andersson	...	Laura
Sandra Dumas	...	Sylvia
Anthony Perkins	...	Alfred
Charles Gormley	...	Eric
Gregor Frenkel Frank	...	Roeblyov
Kitty Courbois	...	Sylvia's mother
Hans Veerman	...	Sylvia's father
Tilly Perin-Bouwmeester	...	Laura's mother
Astrid Weyman	...	Karin
Adrian Brine	...	Alan Denderman
Arnold Gelderman	...	1st Frenchman
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu	...	2nd Frenchman
Joop Admiraal	...	Teacher
Walter van Canoy	...	Police inspector
Tim Beekman	...	Greengrocer

Also Known As:

Twice a Woman

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Netherlands

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Netherlands:16 | USA:R

Company:

MGS Film

This is no sex thing ! It is a touching - and very well made - lesbian love story!

I first saw this movie in '80 when it came out in the cinema and liked it a lot! So some years later I taped it when it was on TV. Recently I found this tape in my (very large!) collection of (sometimes very!) old movies and watched it again. I was very surprised to discover that it was still a very up-to-date, very powerful and very VERY touching movie, regardless the fact that it is a quarter of a century old! I looked it up in the IMDb and was very disappointed to see that it got such a low rating! The audience that gave this low rating consisted mostly of men, probably because the title TWICE A WOMEN gives possibly a rather "wrong" impression of the kind (!) of movie that it really is! It is not a sex thing but instead a tender and moving lesbian love story!

TWICE A WOMEN is based on the famous dutch book, TWEE VROUWEN written in '75 by Harry Mulisch (a famous dutch writer), that was rather controversial in those days. It's about a lesbian relationship, not common at that time, especially in the way that it is told: a very positive and understanding approach rather unusual in those early days! The movie, made by George Sluizer (yes, the famous Sluizer!) in '79, covers the book entirely. The story that is told is in a way timeless: it is set in the '70, but it could just as well be happening today!

*******SPOILER ALERT !!!******

Somewhere in Amsterdam, two women meet while admiring jewels in the window store of a shop. There is Laura, 41 years old, divorced, no children, director of a museum, and Sylvia, 21 years old, who came shopping to the city on her day off from work;she is a hairdresser who lives with her parents somewhere in the country. The two women feel almost instantly very strongly attracted to one another. Laura invites Sylvia for a drink at her place and they end up in bed! This is the beginning of a tender love story as Sylvia moves in with Laura and her cat. Everything goes well at first, despite the difference of age and Sylvia's strict parents who are kind of deceived with a photo of Laura's alleged son. But then Alfred, Laura's ex-husband, comes in the picture and the story takes a rather dramatic turning when Sylvia apparently decides to run off with him. However, when Sylvia returns to Laura, it is Laura who is surprised to find out why it has happened……… (… I'm not telling the whole story !!……) !!!!

George Sluizer, who directed the movie, did a very good job with the book! He captured the essential tag-line of the book (with the exception of Laura's Childhood memories ; that part would have been better left out of the movie!). He also got the perfect actors : the great Bibi Andersson, a Swed's actress, well-known from her Ingmar Bergmann-films (PERSONA, SMILES OF A SUMMERSNIGHT…; she also had a brief relationship with Bergmann!) plays Laura in a very sensitive, very touching manner; Anthony Perkins is astonishingly good as the macho ex-husband Alfred; and Sandra Dumas (only 17 years old at the time! she later took the name SANDRINE Dumas) is amazingly convincing in her (very first!) role as Sylvia! The story is told in an understanding and very delicate way, and Sluizer never uses it as an extra opportunity to show explicit lesbian sex scenes (So please don't watch the movie for that reason only because You'll be utterly disappointed!).

Oh yes, let me set something straight: the movie is English SPOKEN instead of dutch as is stated in the description IMDb! There exists no dutch version! This is a lesbian love-story and a very good (25 year old!) movie that even nowadays can still be compared with DESERT HEARTS or IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK 2. Because of that I think it is rather a women's movie (especially lesbians will embrace it!) and so I wouldn't recommend it to most men in the audience!

I would first give 9/10 but, since this film is still as interesting as 25 years ago, I now say 10/10! This is definitely not a "guy thing", but if you are a women – especially a lesbian women! – and have the opportunity to see this 25-year-old movie then DO IT, you won't be disappointed!