A QUESTION OF SILENCE

Netherlands, 1982, 95 minutes, Colour.
Edda Barends, Nelly Frijda, Henriette Tol.
Directed by Marleen Gorris.

A Question of Silence (The Silence Around Christine M.) is a powerful Dutch docu-drama which has important repercussions for feminist themes. It was written and directed by Marleen Gorris. The situation is quite contrived - but important for highlighting the roles of wen and women in contemporary society. Three oppressed women are shopping, they are treated patronisingly by the shop manager - they turn on him and murder him. There are some bystander witnesses. The women are arrested, go to prison, are interrogated by a woman psychiatrist. There is a court case and her testimony is presented. With the backgrounds of the three women, with the story of the psychiatrist and her relationship with her husband, issues surrounding women and their rights are dramatised. While the presentation is in many ways realistic, the treatment is much more symbolic, a type of psycho-drama.

The film is powerfully argued - one reviewer saying the important thing was dialectic rather than didactic method, the asking of questions rather than their being answered. The reviewer also noted that the constant appeal to common sense is the appeal to patriarchal presuppositions. The film is well acted, interestingly written - and a disturbing piece of entertainment.

1. An interesting and entertaining film? A parable of women's issues in contemporary society? The seriousness of the themes, treatment, motivation? The administration of justice? The feminist dialectic?

2. A Dutch production: setting, Dutch society, perspective? The universality of the theme and its treatment?

3. Life in the Dutch city: homes, offices, cafes, shops, jails, the courts? Authentic atmosphere - used realistically and symbolically?

4. The work of the writer-director and her feminine cast? Feminine sensibility, issues? Women's responses? Men's responses? A disturbing film?

5. The importance of the structure: the introduction to the psychiatrist and her husband and their relationship? Contemporary couple, sexual relationship, marriage, roles? Careers? The introduction to the three women - their background, the arrest? The later visualising of the crime? Prison, the court? The audience gaining the evidence piecemeal? Facts, evidence and interpretation? Questions of motive and justice? Realism,

6. The title - and the focus on silence, on Christine and her refusing to speak? The background of her being silenced by society and its attitude, her family? The silence as a symbol?


7. Audience response to the crime: its being dramatised objectively: the man, the shoppers, the clothes, service, the attack, the brutality, the joining in of the group, the bystanders? Audience reaction to the objectivity of the guilt?

8. Women and their dignity, as persons, as feminine persons? The masculine world and its effect: the office and the secretary and her being excluded from decisions? The cafe and the truckies etc., the home and expectations from husband and children? Silence, sexual harassment, appreciation? the pressures on women, their remaining silent, the potential to lash out - even to kill? The suppression of abilities, talent, personality? The man as a symbol of oppression, of hatred, of violence?

9. The women presented as real and as symbols? The men as real and as symbols: the psychiatrist's husband, lawyer, the boss in the office, the men at the cafe, the victim, the judge?

10. Christine: at home, her story, husband, children, the routines, her not having opinions, keeping silence? The build-up to the crime? Her response afterwards - the children at the fun fair? The bond with the other women? Her arrest, prison, silence? The psychiatrist not being able to break through? The complete withdrawal? Behaviour in the court, the final laughing? Christine as an indictment of men?

11. Andrea and her work, competence as secretary, sexual harassment, opportunities and her being passed over, under-used? Participation in the crime? Her acting out the role of the prostitute - the attraction of the hooker, the man assuming that she was, her leading him on, the sexual encounter and humiliating him? Arrest, prison, encounters -With the psychiatrist, articulate?

12. Annie as the rough diamond, raucous, the divorce, living alone, the encounters with the men, her work, used? Participation in the crime? Prison, reactions, down to earth?

13. Janine and her husband? The mirror of the world of the three women? Marriage relationship, the audience seeing the sexual relationship? Their skills and their work? Equality? The women being seen as honorary males? Her intelligence, professionalism? Entertaining? Comparisons with the three women? The rivalry with her husband and the masculine edge? Her work with the three women, no reaction from Christine, the bullying? Her becoming involved? The testimony and her trying to puzzle it out? Discussions with her husband, the lunches? The pressure tor her report? Her presenting it? Her husband's reaction against it? Her laughing in the courtroom? Janine as a potential killer?

14. The judges and questions of justice? The perspective of a man, he victim, the crime? The reaction to the women and the handing own of the decision?

15. Themes of normality, abnormality? The perspective of the police, the judge, the psychiatrist?

16. The importance of the laughter in the court - tension-breaker, laughing at the them, the hysteria, the laughing at situations? The observers in the court laughing?

17. The bystanders and their presence in the court, solidarity with the accused women, the tableau of the bystander women (age, occupation)?

18. The film as a psychodrama - enabling insight into feminist questions, perspectives?