Gebroken Spiegels Reviews

A strange and uncomfortable picture, this feminist work from Marlene Gorris, the director of A QUESTION OF SILENCE (1984), will shock some and anger others. Club Happy House is an Amsterdam brothel where Lineke Rijxman and Henriette Tol work. The two grow cynical about their lives and the constant flow of men who see women as mere sexual playthings. Interwoven with their story of rebellion against this exploitive system is a subplot involving Edda Barends, a housewife who is kidnaped by a madman. Her abductor, who is also a brothel customer, chains Barends in a cold basement, then lets her starve. He photographs her various stages of dying, adding these snapshots to those of a growing collection of similar victims. These stories of degradation ultimately find liberation as the three women, each in her own way, find freedom from the chains--both psychological and physical--which bind them. (Barends' liberation is in her demise.) BROKEN MIRRORS is an angry film, with a passionate, unrelenting theme. In the battle between the sexes, men are cruel exploiters of women, whether they be patrons at a whorehouse or sadistic killers. Their differences exist in method, but not in motivation. Gorris' controversial work certainly will raise arguements about gender and sexual politics, but her view is not a completely fair one. No male figure in the film shows any redeeming qualities, with men relegated to a few misogynistic stereotypes. The lines are too clearly drawn, and the statement occasionally overcomes the film's drama. Still, the story is well presented, with a strong ensemble that partly circumvents preachy direction.