Cannes 2016: Julieta Review

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Pedro Almodovar is a director whose international reputation spans thirty years, but his recent offerings have been disappointing or – in the case of I’m So Excited – downright risible. Julieta is a return to form of sorts and sees the Spanish filmmaker in a more pared-down environment (at least in relation to his past excesses), with a film based on three short stories by that most pared-down of writers, Alice Munro.

The film’s opening credits show across a rich red silk background, its folds moving and waving slightly. As this is Almodovar the immediate visual reference is a labia, but it is merely the heaving bosom of Julieta (Emma Suarez), who is packing up her flat in Madrid to go to Lisbon with her partner Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti). However, a chance meeting with an old friend of her daughter’s throws Julieta’s plans into disarray. Leaving her partner and her apartment, Julieta returns to her old neighbourhood and from there she recounts in notebook form her version of past events to her alienated child. As Julieta writes, we go back 25 years to when before Antia was born and from here a young Julieta (Adriana Ugarte) takes up the story.

In noir fashion, the blonde femme fatale boards a train and meets a stranger. Yet the first stranger is not the hero of our story – he’s waiting in the dining car – and will soon disappear, but his brief presence will resonate throughout Julieta’s story. And this is no North by Northwest, but a love story. The second stranger is Xoan (Daniel Grao) a dishy fisherman whose wife is in a coma. Julieta and Xoan begin their relationship, which will see Julieta head to the shore and begin a new life with the now widowed mariner.

Although the film is based on Munro’s stories, it is probably best – particularly for fans like me – to simply ignore the link and enjoy the story on its own merits. Gone are the icy frontier landscapes of Munro’s Canada and gone are the naturalistic settings and unresolved stories of their protagonists. You can accuse Almodovar of a lot of things but not iciness. The hues of the film (created by cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu), from Julieta’s clothes to the cars and the landscapes, are brilliant and rich to the extent that everything seems a little fake. Gone, too, are the hardy and Spartan homes of the stories. Xoan lives in what looks like an artist’s Falmouth holiday home replete with fabulous interior design and a daily help Marian (played by Almodovar regular Rossy de Palma) to boot. We also get to meet Xoan’s fuck buddy Ava (Inma Cuesta), whose sensual sculptures will eventually lead Julieta to meet her present lover. Even Julieta’s dad has a complicated love life. We are definitely not in Munro territory now.

There is a great use of the two actors who play Julieta and a clever means of switching between them which segues perfectly between the different chapters of the story. Suarez in particular offers a nuanced and never ostentatious performance. Almodovar has toned down the melodrama and ditched the nonsense to create a mature and restrained movie – and Alice Munro lies at its heart.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Julieta
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julieta-reviewAlmodovar has toned down the melodrama and ditched the nonsense to create a mature and restrained movie.