Julia 1977 123movies

Watch: Julia 1977 123movies, Full Movie Online – This Oscar-winning drama, based on the writing of Lillian Hellman, depicts the relationship between two friends and its unexpected consequences. After Lillian, a renowned playwright, reunites in Russia with her childhood playmate Julia, the writer is recruited to smuggle funds into Germany to aid the anti-Nazi movement. Waiting in the wings is Lillian’s lover and mentor, Dashiell Hammett, who is unaware of her dangerous assignment..
Plot: At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
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Ratings:

	7.1/10 Votes: 9,851
	74% | RottenTomatoes
	58/100 | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 108 Popularity: 10.151 | TMDB

Reviews:

Well-acted and directed drama but not as memorable as the infamous Oscar speech…
Till now, Fred Zinnerman’s “Julia” was for me that film that earned Vanessa Redgrave that very Oscar that inspired the infamous speech where the use of two specific words made the audience gasp in horror… and prompted Paddy Chayefsky to retort with the sharpness of tone he’d made a reputation of.

I’m mentioning this incident because it preceded my viewing for at least one decade and it was so prevalent in my memory that I kept looking for signs of subversions within Redgrave’s character or performance… surely a role that ignited such a fire had to be polemical in its core. There had to be something about that Julia.

Well, I saw “Julia” and let me say it is a puzzling movie, quite literally in fact, the plot is structured like a jigsaw puzzle whose final picture is not just that eponymous Julia that keeps popping in Lillian’s memory in well-placed flashbacks but also the source of that deep friendship. A friendship that was one encounter away from true love, one that wouldn’t have been too subversive during the roaring twenties or in the pre-Nazi Vienna or Berlin.

Anyway, “Julia” could as well be titled “Julia and Lillian” and it’s a shame that a film about two fascinating women couldn’t allow us to reach any of them. But the film couldn’t have been a failure even if it wanted to, for even the intellectual type of movie lover can’t be insensible to the beautiful art-direction, a great rendition of the 30s like a sort of miniaturized version of a Lean epic and naturally, the performances.

The cast includes Jane Fonda who plays the famous writer Lillian Herman (author of “The Little Foxes”), Jason Robards is Dash Hammett, her companion (author of “The Maltese Falcon”) and Vanessa Redgrave is the mysterious Julia preceded by a shadow of mystery. Maximilian Shell also makes a great impact in a role that only consists of three scenes. All these actors would be Oscar-nominated with Robards taking the other Oscar, although that win made much less noise.

It’s a real shame that a film that invested so much talent could lose its way in a needlessly non-linear structure and fail to provide the very insights we expect from a movie dealing with the kind of people (I mean, writers) who expect to bring some three-dimensionality in their creations. The treatment clearly has a pretension of depth but it’s very ironic that the screenplay from Alvin Sargeant, the third Oscar win of the film, is perhaps the least deserved.

Indeed, Julia, the very Julia that drives the action and gives a meaning to Lillian’s constant torments, is never portrayed outside the realm of sheer idealization or victimization until it culminates with martyrdom. It’s one of the few instances I can recall of a story where the subject is an object. And so we see Julia all right but not the real Julia, either from the POV of a friend who admired her deeply or during crucial moments where she follows rules.

We first see her as a young bourgeois girl (Lisa Pelikan) sharing her dreams with her friend (Susan Jones), then a medical student joining the Popular Front against the rise of fascism and later a mastermind of some secret operations, which forces her to spoil the only moment she has with Lillian, set at the present time and where both can communicate. Julia is cruelly two-dimensional, because even when we see her, we get the representation of Julia through Lillian’s eyes, and the woman is never allowed to reveal the depths of her persona, why she joined the fight? What was her feelings? Her role simply shuts her down and entraps her in a range made of only two expressions: dignified resilience or resigned suffering.

The irony is that Jane Fonda, on the other hand, covers richer areas, she’s selfish, ego-driven, ambitious, nervous, petty, enjoys being famous, throws a typewriter off the window out of exasperation, seeking compliments from her lover, she’s so opposite to Julia that she’s in fact more accessible, more real, rounded and natural… but even Fonda seems to be wasted in a role that blocks her impulses and give her no latitude to expand her characters except for that brief mission between Russia and Moscow that seems like a long build up to a climax that never happens.

That said, it’s a pleasure to watch Jane Fonda and her interactions with Jason Robards are one of the film’s highlights. I wonder though what prompted the Academy to make him win his second Oscar for a role that is basically the same than “All the President’s Men”. I know there’s a lot of Oscar trivia involved in the film, which makes it all the more fitting that it’s the debut of the most Oscar-nominated star ever: Meryl Streep.

Now, I said the film would please the intellectual type, I’m afraid the little shortcomings in the narrative structure might disappoint those who expect more ‘punch’ from a film that denounces the horrors of the Nazi regime, in other words, they might find the film boring… and as much as I didn’t have trouble following it, it’s true this is one of these period pieces forgotten like “Ragtime”, “Tess” or “Reds”.

I said it’s ironic that a film about such fascinating women couldn’t allow us to reach any of them, but in a way that echoes how strangely reality can work, it’s also ironic that two women known for their radical views couldn’t bring to the screen that very life that inhabit their roles… in fact, the film could have worked better if that “Julia” was half as interesting as the same Redgrave who made that speech.

Compelling tribute to the power of friendship
Of all the movies I have seen, this one most compellingly portrays the bonds of friendship between two women, even as both are launched into danger. Both actresses give stellar performances here…Jane Fonda as playwright, Lillian Hellman, and Vanessa Redgrave as her longtime friend, Julia. Redgrave won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role and used her win as a platform for a controversial pro Palestinian speech. Other memorable cast members include Jason Robarts (as writer Dashiell Hammett), Maximillian Schell, Hal Holbrook, and Meryl Streep in a minor role during the earlier years of her acting career.

This story is set in the 1930’s. Lillian Hellmann is a playwright, living in a New England beach house with her grouchy lover, Dashiell Hammett, and invited to a writers’ conference in Communist Russia. While en route, she is sent on a dangerous mission by her old and dear friend, Julia, who has been studying in Vienna and has involved herself in the anti fascist underground movement. Julia has persuaded Lillian, who is herself Jewish, to smuggle American currency into Nazi Germany to assist her cause. The two meet briefly, and Lillian learns that Julia has a daughter which she has named Lilly. Back in the States, Lillian is informed of Julia’s mysterious murder and sadly travels to England to seek out this namesake child, which she has promised Julia she will care for.

The film has a gripping plot, suspense and intrigue, particularly Lillian’s train trip through Germany. However, it is the courage of these two women and their bond of friendship that is the thrust of this movie, flashing back to their early years as schoolgirls but especially as it is tested now. Lillian shines here as an extraordinary and loyal friend, willing to embark upon such a journey at the behest of her friend and exposing herself quite unquestionably to danger for Julia. Not to mention undertaking the responsibility of raising Julia’s child.

As for Julia, in retrospect, though she is courageous in her anti Nazi efforts, she comes across not quite so goldenly as a friend. She has embarked upon a risky cause for her life path, her own choice. However, I now ask myself… what kind of friend would ask the Jewish Lillian (living such distance away) to involve herself in this cause, however worthy, at such potential danger to herself? In any case, the film has an appropriate title as Lillian’s actions are all triggered by Julia. There is a certain air of mystery about the present adult Julia throughout much of the film, very effectively done. When we do finally see her at her meeting with Lillian, Redgrave gives Julia radiance and sparkle, making her a sympathetic character. This actress deserved her Oscar.

In any case, this theme of friendship portrayed here has remained fresh with me for many years. I saw the movie long ago in my college years at the theatre with a good friend of my own, so it was particularly poignant for us both at the time.

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 1 hr 57 min (117 min)
Budget 0
Revenue 0
Status Released
Rated PG
Genre Drama
Director Fred Zinnemann
Writer Lillian Hellman, Alvin Sargent
Actors Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards
Country United States
Awards Won 3 Oscars. 21 wins & 25 nominations total
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.85 : 1
Camera Lenses and Panaflex Camera by Panavision
Laboratory DeLuxe, USA (prints by) (as De Luxe), Laboratoires Franay Tirages Cinematographiques (LTC), Paris, France (processed by) (as LTC Paris), Rank Film Laboratories, Denham, UK (processed by) (as Rank Film Laboratories), Technicolor, London, UK (processed by) (as Technicolor London)
Film Length 3,220 m (Sweden)
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm