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Retrospective

Broken Mirrors

FromMarleen Gorris

WithHedda Tabet, Carla Hardy, Marijke Veugelers, Arline Renfurm, Lineke Rijxman, Henriette Tol

Year1984

Duration112min.

LanguageLow German

Part of the NACHTBLENDE special series

in a double feature with BAISE-MOI

“ultimate men are garbage film” Marya E. Gates on Letterboxd

Dutch director Marleen Gorris, who later became the first female director to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with ANTONIA'S WORLD, presented a disturbing early work with BROKEN MIRRORS. It is neither voyeuristic misery cinema nor a feminist glorification of sex work: she shows life in an Amsterdam brothel with sobering matter-of-factness. And with a parallel montage that gets under your skin.

The film weaves together two narrative strands: the inner life of a brothel where women work, love, argue, show solidarity, and sometimes seek protection. On the other hand, there is a basement dungeon where a man kidnaps, humiliates, and kills women. When these two narrative strands converge, self-images become fragile and mirrors lie in shards, as the title suggests...