Julia

M Cubed is officially underway.  This afternoon I sat down and watched "Julia," Meryl Streep's first movie. It was a really hard film to watch.  Not because it's bad or there are dead babies in it, I just have a lot less free time than I thought I did.  I almost didn't make it through because people kept calling me.  I had no idea I was so popular.  Next time I will turn off my phone.

For some background, "Julia" was directed by Fred Zinnemann, made in 1977, and won three Oscars.  The plot is based on a story by Lillian Hellman.  For those who don't know, Hellman was an American playwright who's works include "The Children's Hour" (later adapted into a film staring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine), "Candide" and "Pentimento."  The story follows Hellman (Jane Fonda) during the thirties up until the start of World War Two.  Other literary giants of the era, like Dashiell Hammett and Dorothy Parker have cameos.  If you don't know who these people are, look them up, they're major figures in American literature.  The plot focuses on Hellman's interactions with her long-time friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) and Julia's work with an anti-fascist movement in Nazi Germany.

The cool thing - the character of Julia is fictional.  According to wikipedia (where I get most of my answers to life's great mysteries), it's believed Julia was based on this woman named Muriel Gardiner who was doing the right work at the right time.  Except for the fact Gardiner and Hellman never met.  Go figure.  Makes for a nice little mystery.  

I first heard of this movie in one of those books about lesbian movies I read a while ago.  It's one of those movies that isn't a lesbian film, but wants to be.  There's so much subtext at times it's painful.  At several points I found myself on my feet howling, "For the love of god, just make out already," while Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave were ridiculously oblivious.

I liked Hellman's character, but she took a while to get used to.  Fonda played her as a very demanding and explosive character in the beginning of the film.  This worked well to show her transformation through the story, but was a little shocking at first.  She'd be going along and suddenly explode into yelling, or, one time, throw a typewriter out a window.  

Redgrave is incredible and gorgeous.  She has the crazy ability to look optimistic and pessimistic at the same time and it made the excessive foreshadowing much more believable.

And Ms. Streep shows up 46 minutes in and is on screen for about 57 seconds.  I know this because I timed it.  I almost didn't recognize her, she had dark hair and was insanely young.  But it was a pretty intense 57 seconds of conversation.

Cool trivia courtesy of imdb - Hellman (who was still alive at the time) has a cameo in the film.  During the credits she's sitting in a boat fishing while tied to a dock.  Also, both Faye Dunaway and Julie Christie turned down the part of Julia.  Barbara Streisand turned down the role of Lillian Hellman.  

Overall cool movie scale: 8.  The end was crazy intense and heart breaking.  I recommend.

Hot sex scene scale: 0.  There are no hot sex scenes.  It's not that kind of movie.

Action scale: 1.  Nothing explodes.

Script scale:  8.  I liked the dialogue and the characters were interesting, but at times it was a little clunky.

Other creative-y stuff scale:  9.  Throughout the film I conducted a small love affair with Jane Fonda's sweaters.  The costume designer should get a cookie.

Nerdy bits scale: 9, cool blend of a fictional person (however fictional she actually was) and real events.  The scenes between Hammett and Hellman were some of the best pieces (despite how little chemistry the two had) and made some interesting points about writing.

Streep Scale: 2.  It was an intense 57 seconds, but it was only 57 seconds.

Next film is "Holocaust," a three disc miniseries that might make me want to lose all faith in humanity.  Looking forward to it.