24 May 2012

A Movie for All Seasons

Having been much taken with "Julia" upon its release in 1977, I was curious if I would be so enthralled by it over thirty years later. It holds up very well indeed. Starring Jane Fonda as the writer Lillian Hellman and directed by Fred Zinnemann ("A Man for All Seasons") it is based on a story taken supposedly from Hellman's memoir PENTIMENTO although Reynolds Price in his latest memoir ARDEN SPIRITS accuses Hellman of "purloining" incidents from the life of Muriel Gardiner Buttinger. At any rate the story of what happens to Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) and her fight against fascism in the 1930's makes for high drama of the first order. Both Redgrave and Jason Robards, who plays Dash Hammett, Hellman's lover, both received Oscars for their performances. Maximilian Schell and Hal Holbrook have minor roles, and Meryl Streep has a few lines as well. This seems to me to be Jane Fonda at her best-- she looks terribly young and beautiful-- before she started playing herself as so often happens to actors as they get older. Certainly she is in good company here: think Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson as two examples. Oh, and Redgrave, never one to shun controversy, is just as famous-- or infamous, depending on your point of view-- for her "Zionist" remarks in her Oscar acceptance speech as she is for this very fine performance. The film opens and closes with the same peaceful scene with voice over from Hellman's memoir. A really fine movie indeed.

Stormtrac2

23 May 2012

A masterpiece

After viewing this movie, I was in awe. What a brilliant movie! I couldwatch it another 10 times. Jane Fonda is beautiful in her role. She playsit as if it were her life story. The late Jason Robards is wonderful as hergrouchy companion. I'm surprised he won any awards, let alone an oscar forhis rather small role. However, as good as Fonda and Robards are, thebreathtaking Vanessa Redgrave shines over everyone else. Just looking intothose bright eyes can mesmerize you. She has the face of an angel: thebright curly hair, the thin lips, and the eyes, too. She,too, had a rathersmall role, and this was her only oscar winning performance (believe it ornot). The girl who portrayed her as a girl has the same face, and she, toois magnificent. The writing is great, but the movie moves a little slow attimes.8/10

23 May 2012

Julia--a WWII movie

This review is from: Julia (DVD) This is a different sort of WWII movie. It is not about battles, but a story of two women civilians. It is not hard to follow and it is quite suspenseful.

22 May 2012

JANE VANESSA AT THEIR BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have seen this film many times and each time it's new. Jane is so real playing nervous when being searched on the train! Even though I know the outcome Istill squirm in my seat--thats a great proformance--

21 May 2012

Truth? Fiction? Or Just A Darned Good Story

Occasionally, when I'm dashing off a review for amazon.com, I will try to adopt a less subjective, somewhat more professional style. Sometimes this is little more than a kind of writing exercise: sometimes it may be just because I've looked at some of my other reviews and seen (much to my own embarrassment) how often the pronoun "I" comes up. Who needs that?But then *I* think there really are some advantages to talking about film in a subjective mode. Perhaps more than any other art form (except maybe, popular music and--if you view it as an artform--television), the movies just about beg for a subjective analysis. It's what made reading Pauline Kael so much fun after all. Ultimately, movie criticism is about what you like, what moved you, whether or not you could relate to the action on the screen, whether or not you even WANTED to relate to the action on the screen. The whole schmier.And another advantage to the subjective approach--so often, when I re-watch a movie, I respond to it completely differently from the last time. A film you loved twenty years ago has you scratching your head and saying, "WHAT was I thinking." And a film you detested can take on a positive new light for reasons that you can't even begin to put your finger on. You may even find that you go back and forth with a given film to the extent that you begin to realize that subjective commentary may be the ONLY truly honest commentary. Case in point, Fred Zinneman's 1977 film JULIA. There was a time when I was very ambivalent (and really mostly negative) about this movie. It seemed to be an exercise in earnestness, kind of "special project" movie that the relatively recently politicized Jane Fonda undertook so frequently in the 1970s. Actually, though, I found that the political story worked pretty well. The subplot about Lillian's struggles to establish herself as a playwright nearly drove me up the wall, precisely for the reasons that others have detailed here. The scenes of her chainsmoking, tearing her hair--and actually throwing the typewriter out the window (try doing that with your computer these days) virtually SCREAMED "serious writer at work." When I watched this film in my 20s, I wasn't very patient with what I felt were cinematic cliches.When I watched the film again recently, I found that these scenes didn't bother me half as much as they had back then. It may well be it's because I've seen hundreds of films in the interim and have come to realize that there is a kind of "cinematic shorthand" (a much friendlier term than "cinematic cliche, wouldn't you say?) that has always been employed (whether you're talking about images of the hands of clock speeding by--or calendar pages being torn off--or something as basic as a voiceover, a device central to the film JULIA). I seem to have grown a lot more patient with such cinematic conventions over the years. And in the case of JULIA, I have actually started to see the typewriter throwing as further possible evidence of a self-mythologizing tendency on the part of Lillian Hellman, the author of the film's source material, the "memoir" PENTIMENTO.Mary McCarthy has been widely quoted as having said that every word that Lillian Hellman ever wrote was "a lie, including 'the' and 'and.' I don't know enough about Hellman or McCarthy to comment extensively. But the film, perhaps inadvertantly, raises a lot of interesting questions about the very nature of what a memoir is, or a film biography. If Lillian Hellman sought self-aggrandizement, which seems likely, does she also not touch on some very real truths about the nature of courage and heroism. And in the end, doesn't she (or maybe don't the filmmakers) tell a pretty good story?Take it with a grain--or a shaker--of salt. Put some of it on your popcorn. And enjoy a remarkable story about two remarkable women. In this po-mo world, we're becoming used to taking every tale as a fiction. When it's told with good acting, good direction, good cinematography, and, yes, mostly good writing, it's pretty easy to take a few "lies" with the truth, the chaff with the wheat, and to still take a few lessons from the process.

21 May 2012

Compelling, wonderful film

I remember when seeing two women together, supporting and caring for each other was very, very rare. The most compelling part in this movie is where Lillian and Julia meet in the cafe. Julia tells Lillian that she has named her daughter for her. Julia finally reaches over and puts her hand on Lillian's and says "My beloved friend. Go!" Yet another potent reminder of the courage of the Resistance fighters in the face of Nazi terror. Jason Robards is incredible, and for those of us who grew up near Long Island beaches, it's a wonderful recollection of them. Buy it for your daughters.

19 May 2012

Beads On a Hot Dancer . . .

This review is from: Julia (DVD) When I recently purchased the DVD of "Julia," I recalled these words uttered by Lilly and her friend Julia in their adolescent memory game; the image, from Hellman's book "Pentimento"--repeated in the film--is as vivid and unforgettable as is this splendid film, which has not dimmed with the passage of time. If anything, "Julia" has improved over the years, time having rendered the former controversies over the politics of Fonda and Redgrave and the truth or falsity of Hellman's narrative irrelevant.Every character in this film is finely delineated: Jane Fonda as the insecure chain-smoking author, Lillian; Vanessa Redgrave as her best friend in the title role [and the word "luminous," with which several reviewers characterize Redgrave's performance, does not constitute hyperbole]; Jason Robards as Lilly's gruff but tender mentor and lover; Maximilian Schell as Julia's impoverished anti-fascist go-between; and the two actresses who play Lilly and Julia as young girls. All are superb. "Julia" is arguably one of the best espionage films ever produced in Hollywood. The image of a transcontinental train hurtling through the snow-bound night, just as the world is hurtling headlong into war, evokes danger and guarantees entertainment of the highest calibre. Many Oscar-winning films nowadays are well acted but so depressing that one might not want to view them a second time. "Julia" is a keeper, especially at Amazon's ridiculously low price.

19 May 2012

Julia DVD

This review is from: Julia (DVD) Excellent movie about two female friends chronicled from childhood through adulthood. I highly recommend this film. As for the seller of this DVD, I received this item very quickly and was very pleased with the condition. I would definitely purchase from this Seller again.

jc-osms

17 May 2012

Not All about Julia

Oscar-festooned as it was, I found my expectations of this film,greatly lowered by my viewing experience. For all its A-Listcredentials, Fred Zinneman as director, Fonda, Redgrave, Robards andSchell in the leads, I found it a turgid experience.I've actually for many years been an admirer of Hellman's writings (aswell as that of her "beau", the hard-living crime-writer DashiellHammett), which should have added an extra piquancy to an on thesurface anyway, interesting story, but really this was a film whichthinks that lots of pauses and meaningless scenes, no matter howbeautifully shot or professionally acted, add up to a convincing drama.In truth the film would have been better called "Lillian" as it'sFonda's character who's barely ever off the screen and whose struggleto write her first play hardly seems the stuff of a major plot device.And so we're presented with her adventure in war-threatened Europeostensibly seeking out her conscience-stricken poor little rich girlchildhood friend Julia, played by Vanessa Redgrave (perfect castingthere!) and a drawn-out train journey to Berlin opposite two otherfemales who may or may not be on her side. For me however, I foundalmost no tension in said journey nor did I get any sense of dramaticrelief when she fulfils her mission and briefly meets up with a nowbattle-scarred Julia in a bar.The period recreation is fine, the performances competent enough,although hardly Oscar worthy, indeed Fonda's face seemingly displaysonly two expressions throughout - fraught and confused.Quite what the point of the film was I'm not sure, its focus blurredbetween a celebration of a heroic life in dangerous times, aremembrance of a devoted friendship or an examination of artisticcreativity. For me it accomplished none of these and must be judged afailure accordingly.

16 May 2012

One of the BEST FILMS of the latter 20th Century.

This review is from: Julia (DVD) I have seen this over 20 times, and find the story, pacing and settings captivating. Let us review the film on its merits as a docu-drama and the wonderful and deep characterizations portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda. A woman's memoir of a turbulent time in her life and the world's. A story of devotion and sacrifice.I had seen this in the cinema with my best friend when we were very young, and it has stayed with us over the years. I purchased two DVDS: one to replace my old-"taped from TV" and the second as a gift to my dear friend.I recommed this film highly for anyone looking further into the life of one of our pioneer female writers and playwrights, and for a vision into what sacrifice can mean.For more interest in Socio-polictical topics, I also recommend Citizen Cohen...The story of Judge Roy Cohen, the infamous second to MaCarthy...and the subsequent Red-hunts of the late 40s and early 50s. Starring James Woods (HBO).

Lee Eisenberg

15 May 2012

the gathering storm of Nazism

Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave continued their streak of formidableroles with "Julia". Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) was childhood friendswith affluent Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). Julia has since abandoned herwealth and devoted her life to fighting Fascism. She is currentlyhelping the resistance movements in Europe. Lillian decides to bringsome American currency to help Julia in her struggles. While in Europe,she can certainly see the imprint of Nazism.This movie does a masterful job not only showing the takeover by theNazis, but it also puts some other things in perspective. Since I sawit a few days before the US invaded Iraq, I got the feeling of asimilarity in that way. Maybe the fact that someone in my dormitory wasplaying a somber song on the piano (it may have been the "Schindler'sList" theme music) also contributed to that. But either way, theperfect direction, script, cinematography, and performances by Fondaand Redgrave, plus Jason Robards Jr as Dashiell Hammett and MaximilianSchell as Julia's friend Johann, make this a perfect movie.

15 May 2012

Julia

This review is from: Julia (DVD) If you like Jane Fonda or Vannassa Redgrave you'll like this movie.The content is dark but considering it's WWII that won't be a surprise. The movie is touching,sad,and in someways makes you feel nice about love and friendship and in another way makes us wonder how far we'd go in the name of friendship.

14 May 2012

Not too dated

Lushly photographed, you can watch this just for the gorgeous scenes in pre-war Paris and Berlin. Supposedly about two strong women, Jane Fonda's role as Hellman makes her out to be a bit of a klutz. Vanessa Redgrave's brief appearances mark the stronger of the two. Made in 1977 when WW2 was closer in time than Vietnam is now, the movie is a bit of a relic, but still worth watching. Jason Robards as Dashiell Hammett is a hoot. Fonda needed acting lessons then, just like now. Too much emoting for my taste.

13 May 2012

MARVELOUS FILM

"Julia" is a truly marvelous film; literate, fascinating, fun. Its DVD release (finally due on 2/7/06) should serve as a welcome addition to any DVD collection. Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave are spellbinding as devoted girlhood friends who face a dangerous test, with ultimately devastating consequences, together. Meryl Streep makes her film debut here; both Redgrave and Jason Robards won Best Supporting Oscars for their roles. Fonda was also nominated (much deserved), as was the film itself - undoubtedly one of the best pictures of 1977. My suggestion? Buy it.

Cyrn

12 May 2012

One of the Most Compelling Trainrides of Cinema

I'm no fan of either leads' politics and found it ironic that MissHellman actually disputed the movie depicting her having searched forJulia's baby- when in fact, virtually the entire plot was MissHellman's fiction. She'd never even met the 'real' Julia (one Dr.Muriel Gardiner) nor did 'Julia'/Dr. Gardiner have any baby in the1930's but Miss Hellman undoubtedly admired the work Dr. Gardiner didand wished she could have been a part of that. This movie and the bookMiss Hellman wrote that it was based on would be more of awish-fullfillment than anything. All that said,though, it was quite a great testament to the power offriendship (and that's ALL it was but that alone was strong enough)that saw Lillian seek out acceptance and accolades in the very societythat she'd first been dazzled by via her girlhood visits with Julia-yet this aerified society was exactly what Julia herself would spendher entire life fleeing and trying to do right by the larger world.Strange that even in their girlhood, the cars and wardrobe was depictedas being no earlier than the 1920's- yet the movie makes it clear thatat least 20 years had elapsed when everything came to a head c.1938!So many unanswered questions raised here! Why were Julia's grandparentsand mother so estranged from her that they refused to recognize herbest friend or even acknowledge her death? Who was Mr. Johannes andwhat would he have done had Lillian not opted to volunteer for themission- even with her obnoxious friends trying to tag along/talk herout of it? Quite fitting that they used one of the last steam enginelocomotives from that time for that movie- the steam added to thesinister and mystery of the operation! What exactly did Lillian's traincompartment companions know about the mission and Lillian herself? Wasit more than just the importance of Lillian wearing the lambskin hatand using the fine chocolate bon-bons to divert the German Customs'attention? Who was it who removed the money from the lambskin hat whileshe and Julia were in the beer hall? The fact that these are fictionalcharacters doesn't mean these questions aren't worth pondering!What a remarkable reunion between the Lillian and Julia- as though theyboth knew they had so much to say to each other but too little time tosay it yet still were able to communicate more in that singleconversation than many friends who have a lifetime together! And aninteresting touch that the single trainride and meeting of Mr. Johannesseemed to have impacted Lillian even more than all the years she'dsurvive Julia and Dashell yet would continue to dominate her life!The only thing that brings it down any is Miss Hellman having pretendedher remarkable story was fact.

11 May 2012

A MOVIE PACKED WITH STELLAR PERFORMANCES

"Julia" is a good example of Hollywood's old school cinema (in a good sense), because this movie was designed to be carried by solid performances, the touch of a great director and a solid script. This is the kind of movie that it's hard to find in these days because there are a lot of outstanding performances, specially Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards and Maximilian Schell.The script of this movie features a lot of social and political commentaries, but you don't have to be a political oriented person to enjoy the film. The performances are great, but some technical aspects of the movie are noteworthy as well, specially the costumes, makeup, photography, and edition.Another interesting thing in "Julia" is the use of the flashbacks. Once in a while the movie show us the past of Lillian and Julia (the main characters), all those flashbacks help the audience to understand better the background and mindsets of the characters.If you enjoy movies that showcase great performances, then you should see "Julia", the movie has a great cast and a solid and interesting script, even if you are not into politics.

08 May 2012

I dont understand all the hype over this

Another case of when I side with the minority. I didn't get through it. Decided I had much better ways to spend my time. The only thing I really enjoyed was Meryl Streep's bit. I don't whether she resurfaced later in the film but I guess I'll never know now.

08 May 2012

Beads On a Hot Dancer . . .

This review is from: Julia (DVD) When I recently purchased the DVD of "Julia," I recalled these words uttered by Lilly and her friend Julia in their adolescent memory game; the image, from Hellman's book "Pentimento"--repeated in the film--is as vivid and unforgettable as is this splendid film, which has not dimmed with the passage of time. If anything, "Julia" has improved over the years, time having rendered the former controversies over the politics of Fonda and Redgrave and the truth or falsity of Hellman's narrative irrelevant.Every character in this film is finely delineated: Jane Fonda as the insecure chain-smoking author, Lillian; Vanessa Redgrave as her best friend in the title role [and the word "luminous," with which several reviewers characterize Redgrave's performance, does not constitute hyperbole]; Jason Robards as Lilly's gruff but tender mentor and lover; Maximilian Schell as Julia's impoverished anti-fascist go-between; and the two actresses who play Lilly and Julia as young girls. All are superb. "Julia" is arguably one of the best espionage films ever produced in Hollywood. The image of a transcontinental train hurtling through the snow-blown night, just as the world is hurtling headlong into war, evokes danger and guarantees entertainment of the highest calibre. Many Oscar-winning films nowadays are well acted but so depressing that one might not want to view them a second time. "Julia" is a keeper, especially at Amazon's ridiculously low price.

08 May 2012

Jane Fonda Comes of Age

Too bad this one's out of stock, but worse was that the poltical backlash Vanessa Redgrave's Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech detracted from the film's importance. Despite that, "Julia" may well be the best work in Redgrave's and Jane Fonda's impressive bodies of work. For the latter, the film launched the socially-themed works that followed, and Fonda may well have come of age in this one. She plays writer Lillian Hellman to Redgrave's title character, an upper-class rich kid who grows into social activist and lays her life on the line to smuggle condemned Jews from the death camps of Hitler's Third Reich. Redgrave is superlative, and Fonda is rivting as Julia's childhood friend who gradually comes to recognize the evil unleashed by man on man at the time. As Julia's long-time lover, Dashell Hammitt, the late Jason Robards nailed down one of his back-to-back Supporting Actor Oscars ("All the President's Men" was the other), and the raw talent of the Fonda-Redgrave-Robards package helps make "Julia" one of Fonda's best works. The importance of the film's subject matter is so overwhelming that it easily displaces the Vietnam-related controvery that dogged (and may still) Fonda through the '70s and the unpopular words Redgrave used in her Oscar acceptance speech (she was literally booed off the stage). Far from a "chick flic," "Julia" is an important film that delves into but one relam in the darkest of human history, and it's earned a lofty spot among films of its genre.

08 May 2012

Best Movie in the History of the World

Everything works in this beautiful period piece, especially the acting. The design and costuming are also spectacular, as is the powerful, poignant script. It's a hero's journey/road picture to outdo any other, as far as I'm concerned, with bravery against Nazis thrown in for good measure -- lovely work that happens to feature Meryl Streep's film debut.