Two striking mirror moments in Marleen Gorris’ provocative directorial debut, a major entry in the catalog of feminist cinema, a film still poking the bear, 1982’s A Question of Silence. (People freaking out about how Barbie is anti-man clearly have not seen A Question of Silence. Like, please. Calm down.) Henriëtte Tol stares at herself in the side mirror of a car trailing along beside her, a car driven by a man who has mistaken her for a prostitute. And Cox Habbema, the psychiatrist hired by the court to evaluate the mental capacities of the three women accused of murder, stares at herself in her bedroom mirror, perhaps evaluating her relationship to her man, herself as a woman, things she’s never before questioned.
