Julieta 2016

     This film is based on three stories written by Alice Munro with the titles Chance, Soon and Silence from her 2004 collection Runaway.  Julieta and her boyfriend Lorenzo are planning to move from Madrid to Portugal, Spain.  Julieta and Lorenzo are middle-aged and they want to start anew together.  Plans change when Julieta meets Beatriz in town.  Bea is a former close friend of Julieta’s daughter Antia.  Bea tells Julieta that she saw Antia when she was in Switzerland for a photography project.  She passes on the information that Antia is well and she has three children.  Julieta doesn’t tell Bea that she knows nothing about Antia because she hasn’t seen her in 12 years?  Antia went to a retreat in the Pyrenees during a summer break and she left a message that she never wanted to see her mother again.  Julieta cancels her plans to move and begins a journal for Antia about Julieta’s life before Antia was born.

     Julieta is writing in this journal to confront the pain of her past but she slowly sinks into a deep depression.  She experienced this just prior to Anita leaving and then again after her daughter left.  She thought she had moved on from these feelings but they were very near the surface.  Lorenzo doesn’t know what to do or think about the change of their futures?  I thought this film was very interesting and I liked seeing Julieta at different stages of her life.  I could feel her pain and loss through the screen.  The scenery of this area is very beautiful.  4* (I really liked this movie)

99 min, Drama directed by Pedro Almodovar with Emma Suarez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao, Inma Cuesta, Dario Grandinetti, Michelle Jenner, Pilar Castro, Nathalie Poza, Susi Sanchez, Joaquin Notario, Priscilla Delgado.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 83% critic 74% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 50 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Galicia, Madrid, Andalucia, Aragon, Castilla-la Mancha, Spain.  Originally the screenplay was written in English and Meryl Streep was approached to play Julieta.  Since Alice Munro is from Canada, Pedro and Agustin Almodovar went to scout for locations in Canada.  They decided to film in a language and county they were more familiar with.  Almost every shot contains the color red.  The working title was Silencio but Pedro learned that Martin Scorsese was also making a movie with the title Silence released in 2016.