Julieta * * * * *

Don’t you just love the confidence that some professionals emanate as they work? They just make it all look so easy.  That’s what watching this latest film from Spanish Director Pedro Amodavar was like. The Maestro at work.

Dear Phil: I'm writing to say thanks 
for the nice review.  Julieta.  xox

It’s like he walks on the stage after lesser talents have been trying to impress us with noise and exaggeration, and suddenly you are in the hands of a master and you remember - Ah this is how it should be done!

A beautiful story, flawlessly scripted, diamond cut scenes, superb acting and lucid clear intelligent story telling.

This visually gorgeous, intelligent, moving film is just an absolute pleasure to watch.

It tells the story of Julieta and her relationship with her daughter over a 25 year period.  It’s a virtual odyssey, which is significant as Julieta herself is a teacher of Greek Mythology.

In some ways her life does not seem any more or less dramatic than most of us. Yet as we watch the journeys Julieta undertakes, the places she lives at - the sense of betrayal she feels - both rightly and wrongly, you cannot help but reflect upon your own - or anybody else's - life and wonder, what we have over reacted to, and what we have fatally ignored.

Although rich with symbolism it is has many seemingly unimportant incidents that become significant.  One of the most touching is a man she meets on the train when she is a young woman in her twenties. He would be twice her age if not more.  He asks if he can sit with her so they might talk. But she goes off to the buffet car where she meets another man. There is a consequence to her action which will affect her for ever.  
Loss and separation are at the heart of this film: Every character is affected by grief or separation. And you begin to wonder is this what attracts these people to one the other?  But it does not feel melancholic. Indeed, at times it has a sense of mystery which is Hitchcockian.

So intertwined are the characters in this film and so similar are their circumstances,  If I were to tell you the relationships between them all I think I would spoil the experience of watching it unfold for you.

I’d recommend this film - highly!
(5)