Julieta (2016)

Julieta is definitely not the best, but for sure not the worst of Almodovar either. It's a good story, with very good actors, good characters but the scenes Almodovar put all together are stereotypes of his own cinema and his own world. It's a bit like Tarantino who exaggerates what he does (or did) the best. Is it because he gets older and older ? Is it because he lacks inspiration ? I loved his cinema, I don't want to lash out at him but this film is not enough to resuscitate Almodovar's genius. Almodovar masters the dramatic art, the seriousness of scenes, the desire on screen but he mainly made a postcard of his own, a postcard of his own world. The salad bowl is beautiful, full of fresh vegetables and Spanish specialties, the house on the North coast features an outstanding view over the sea, the Spanish village in the south is authentic and calm, the kitchen's wall paper reminds the eighties but it is mainly "beautifully cheesy". It requires no effort to watch it, you can let you drive by his eternal love towards Madrid, the women, the Spanish country side, sexual desires and you can lie to yourself saying it's agreat one... it may work for some time and you'll have a good moment. The end of the film is just a non-ending story... and we (his fans) will wait for the next one.

Fmovies: Fate and mother/daughter relationships Pedro Almodóvar crowns his 30 year career as one of our most creative, controversial and brilliant cinematic artists with this his twentieth film – JULIETA – based on three short stories by Alice Munro as adapted for the screen by Almodóvar. Not only is the story mesmerizing and at times challenging to keep up with the director's ideas, it displays a brilliant cast of Spanish actors in one of the most impressive films of the past year.

One of the tricky directorial decisions is to employ two actresses to play the same character – one as the younger Julieta and one as the more mature Julieta. The manner in which Almodóvar transitions these two aspects of the personality of Julieta (as well as the stunning performances by the two actresses – Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte) is just one of the miracles of this film.

Briefly, after a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events about her stranded daughter. But more specifically, Julieta (Emma Suárez) is a middle-aged woman living in Madrid with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti). They plan to move to Portugal when Julieta encounters Bea (Michelle Jenner), former best friend of her daughter Antia (Priscilla Delgado then Blanca Parés), who reveals that Antia is living in Switzerland and is married and with three children. With the heart broken after 12 years of total absence of her daughter, Julieta cancels the journey to Portugal and she moves to her former building, in the hope that Antia someday communicates with her sending a letter. Alone with her thoughts, Julieta starts to write her memories to confront the pain of the events happened when she was a teenager (Adriana Ugarte) and met Xoan (Daniel Grao), a Galician fisherman. Falling in love with him, Julieta divides her time between the family, the job and the education of Antia until a fatal accident changes their lives: Xoan is drowned at sea during a brutal storm. Slowly decaying in a depression, Julieta is helped by Antia and Bea, but one day Antia goes missing suddenly after a vacation with no clues about where to find her, leaving Julieta desperate to understand the reasons of her missing and her search leads to self discovery and acceptance of buried secrets – her own relationship with her mother and the kinship between like mother who happen to be mother/daughter.

The uniformly excellent cast includes the Almodóvar constant, Rossy de Palma, whose presence is a meaningful driver to the story. The musical score is by Alberto Iglesas and the lush cinematography is the work of Jean-Claude Larrieu. But the crown belongs to Pedro Almodóvar – another brilliant masterpiece.

I found Julieta to be interesting at the very least. The story has a smooth flow and My whole attention was within the movie. I was trying to grasp everything the characters said while enjoying the visuals and the score.

Technically, this is probably Almadovar's best work. The scenery and camera work is beautiful. The colors please the eye. The score in the background is always in the right tone. Aiding to the smooth transitions within the movie. The cast is excellent. I understood clearly who each character is.

The main theme of Julieta is the relationship between a mother and her child. And that some things we understand as we grow older, with our life experience. This is a recurring theme in Almadovar's movies ('High Heels', 'Volver') but it is set upon a different set of characters with different virtues and faults. And of course a different story.

The plot is imperfect but it is very interesting nonetheless. I didn't fall in love with the characters of Julieta like it was in 'All about my mother' - and this is the main reason I didn't rate it higher - but I still felt their human side. And on the upside, there were no annoying or boring characters either.

People write about a new Almadovar. Well, for me it was a bit of misleading. I saw the director's signature elements through the whole movie. I'm talking about the camera shots, the low amount of people on set, the gradual revelation of events so when the credits roll the viewer knows all that happened explaining all the references made. It is less extravagant then some of his other work, but it is definitely not his first in being such.

Julieta fmovies. Pedro Almodover 2oth feature film being an engaging and thought provoking melodrama dealing with a middle age woman , Emma Suarez , living in Madrid with her sweetheart , Dario Grandinetti , about to move towards Lisboa . She , then , decides to stay only in Madrid to take on her existence and the most essential deeds about her missing daughter , Priscila Delgado . Julieta begins to record by writing her sad memories when she was a teen , Adriana Ugarte , and how she meets a fisher, Daniel Grao , and falls for him .

Interesting and agreeable drama by Almodovar plenty of passions , love , death and twists. Great performances from Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte. Being based on 3 stories by Alice Munro titled Chance, Soon and Silence from his collection Runaway . Attractive as well as sensational support cast plenty of Almodovar familiar faces such as Dario Grandinetti, Rossi De Palma in her seventh collaboration , along with others as Daniel Grao , Imma cuesta, Natalie Poza, Michelle Jenner, Susi Sánchez , Joaquin Notario , Pilar Castro .Sensitive and enjoyable soundtrack by Oscar Winner Alberto Iglesias , Almodovar regular. Colorful and evocative cinematography by Jean Claude Larrieu and a lot of frames contains the Red color.

La motion picture was well directed by Pedro Almodovar in his usual style, being produced by his brother Agustin Almodovar and their production company , El Deseo . This is Almodovar return to women's drama which he has not directed on since Volver . Almodovar is considered to be one of the best fimmakers of the film history . He has got a lot of hits with dramatic films as Talk to her , Volver , The flower of My secret , The sin I live in, Abrazos rotos , Carne Trémula, Tacones Lejanos , Ley Del Deseo , Que he hecho yo para merecer esto , Matador ! , but also has made comedies as Women on the edge of breakdown , Kika , Laberinto de pasiones , I am so excited and Pepi Lucia Bom.

I loved 'Julieta'. Pedro Almodovar's 2016 production is one of those films that captivates the viewers during the whole duration of the screening because of the mastering of story telling and by using human emotions. Other directors may do the same thing by making recourse to thrills or horror or intellectual curiosity but it's hard to keep the attention alive for the whole duration of a long feature film. It's not the case here – as a viewer in a cinema hall I lived every moment of this story together with its (mostly female) heroes, and I keep thinking and caring about the characters hours after the screening finished. I believe that the conditions are met for the first 10 out of 10 grade on my IMDb scale in years.

Many of the previous films of Almodovar are about love and loss, about communication with and without words, about death and passion and the fragile border between them. What seems to be different in 'Julieta' is the more tender approach and also a message that seems to be more assertive that in many other movies of the Spanish maestro – there are dangers in being lonely and in not being capable to communicate with those you care about.

The social landscape where the film takes place is the same Spain in evolution from the democratic awakening of the late 70s and early 80s with its breaking of tradition and liberation of passions until the today with its cold and antiseptic kind of connections in the bourgeois or intellectual circles. The family cell is the one that seems to perpetuate not necessarily the traditions but also the cheating and domestic crises in a repetition that one can accept or revolt with all the risks taken. Julieta's profession – a teacher of Greek and mythology, and a good one – puts her in the position to connect between the day to day banality of sentiments and the greater forces of destiny, but her problem resides mainly in the lack of communication with her daughter. Are the walls between generations unavoidable? Is it us who build these walls or is it just destiny that rises them in each generation? Can anything but time turn these walls down?

As in any great movies there are several levels of story. There is a story of relationship between mother and daughter, and of coming of age. There are threads about family relations that perpetuate for generations, about men who cheat, women who try to balance marriage, mothering, and their own realization, young maids who steal husbands, old maids who talk too much, social differences that can only be hidden but not erased. Death seems to be around the corner at many moments, so is physical incapacity and the pain of coping with the decay of the dear ones – these are some of the recurring themes in the movies of the Spanish master.

As in many of Almodovar's films its the women characters who share most of the load (although this film also features one sensitive man as a key supporting character). The two actresses that play Julieta at the two stages of her life – Adriana Ugarte as a young woman, Emma Suárez as her elder self are both superb in taking turns to tell the story of a woman who loves and fears, loses all and searches back to find her compass in life. The way the story is written we learn about many of the details and discover some of the hidden threads together with the character. This helps us feel and resonate with her. The elegant casting and direction help us understand that while guilt may pass in between generations, there is always hope, and reconcilia

You may enjoy Julieta (2016) more if you know that it is a women's film from the melodrama genre and a story of pure emotion. While it is labelled a romance it is nothing like a romance and don't expect light entertainment or laughs as the film is devoid of humour. What is does have is an outpouring of quintessentially maternal guilt and self-absorbed loss that is palpable throughout the film. While critics may be divided, this is a beautiful film with a long aftertaste.

We meet the attractive widow Julieta just as she is packing to leave Madrid and move with her boyfriend to Portugal. Madrid is full of painful memories, the most intense of which is not seeing her daughter Antia for twelve years. A chance encounter with her daughter's former best friend opens an uncontrollable torrent of guilt which suddenly fills Julieta's life. Abandoning her boyfriend, she decides to stay in Madrid in case Antia ever looks for her. Unable to deal with her grief in any other way, she writes the story of her life as if she is talking to her absent daughter.

Julieta narrates the story in chapters that become extended flashbacks to her early romance with Antia's father, their lives together as a family and its eventual disintegration. What was once a life full of loving relationships becomes one of multiple losses even though Julieta herself bears little blame for the tragedies. Julieta is unaware how deeply her daughter was affected by what happened and is bewildered when Antia searches for spirituality at a Swiss retreat. Her sudden disappearance without explanation has left her mother with unresolved grief.

As each chapter unfolds we see the larger portrait of the mother and daughter relationship in all its dense complexity and destructive power. The narrative teasingly denies us knowledge of why Antia refuses all contact with her mother, and year after year Julieta mourns each passing birthday as if it was a funeral. The storytelling intensity is sustained by finely nuanced acting from the two stars who play the younger and older Julieta, and those who play Antia at different ages. The camera-work has a melancholic sensitivity that resonates with the Spanish landscapes and urban settings, and while the story unwinds slowly, to tell it more quickly would lose depth and meaning. Julieta is a darkly sensitive essay about the universal emotion of maternal guilt and its melancholy lifts like a rising fog with a masterfully ambivalent ending that soars.