Themes: Women's Friendship, Political Unrest, Writer's Life
Main Cast: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Jr., Maximilian Schell, Hal Holbrook
Release Year: 1977
Country: US
Run Time: 116 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The film traces the lifelong relationship between playwright Lillian Hellman and Julia, a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to follow her ideals. In the 1930s, while the adult Hellman (Jane Fonda) struggles to establish herself as a playwright with the help of her lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards), Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) battles the exigencies of the Nazi regime. Visiting Julia in Germany, Lillian realizes how much her friend's idealism has cost her, both physically and financially. Lillian is asked by Julia's friend Johann (Maximilian Schell) to smuggle a large sum of money from Paris to Germany, the better to combat the Nazis from within. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and four acting awards, Julia won for Alvin Sargent's screenplay and Robards' and Redgrave's performances, leading to Redgrave's infamous "Zionist hoodlums" acceptance speech. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A 1970s "new" women's film starring two of the period's more outspoken activist actresses, Julia (1977) wistfully examines the power of female bonding as depicted in one of playwright Lillian Hellman's memoirs. Bookended by shots of Jane Fonda's aged Lillian meditating on her life, Julia unfolds in a series of occasionally over-gauzy flashbacks portraying the impact of two key figures on Hellman's existence. Even as Jason Robards' mentor/lover Dashiell Hammett is crucial to Lillian's 1930s success, it is Vanessa Redgrave's Resistance fighter Julia who proves to be the more powerful presence, whether as a memory or in the ethereal flesh. Regardless of the story's status as one of Hellman's infamous, ahem, embellishments of reality, Julia remains a compelling story of female friendship, particularly in Fonda's and Redgrave's intense hands. Director Fred Zinnemann surrounds the pair with a high-class period production that perfectly captures both Lillian's American salon society and Julia's war-torn Europe; Robards and Maximilian Schell make the most of their supporting roles. Julia's expert craft garnered 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and won three, allowing passionately left-wing, pro-PLO winner Redgrave to take her politics to the podium and make herself persona non grata at the Oscars. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Rosemary Murphy - Dorothy Parker; Meryl Streep - Anne Marie; Dora Doll - Train Passenger; Elisabeth Mortensen - Train Passenger; John Glover - Sammy; Lisa Pelikan - Young Julia; Susan Jones - Young Lillian; Cathleen Nesbitt - Grandmother; Maurice Denham - Undertaker; Gerard Buhr - Passport Officer; Christian de Tilière - Paris Concierge; Stefan Gryff - Hamlet; Mark Metcalf - Pratt; Ann Queensbury - Woman in Berlin Station; Shane Rimmer - Customs Officer, New York Port Authority; Jacqueline Staup - Woman in Green Hat; Molly Urquhart - Woman; Hans Verner - Vienna Concierge; Edmond Bernard - Man in Berlin Station; Antony Carrick - Butler; Don Koll - First-Nighter at Sardi's
Credit
Margot Capelier - Casting, Juliet Taylor - Casting, Joan Bridge - Costume Designer, Anthea Sylbert - Costume Designer, Colette Baudot - Costume Designer, Anthony Waye - First Assistant Director, Alain Bonnot - First Assistant Director, Fred Zinnemann - Director, Walter Murch - Editor, Marcel Durham - Editor, Julien Derode - Executive Producer, Georges Delerue - Composer (Music Score), Bernadine M. Anderson - Makeup, George Frost - Makeup, Paddy Carey - Camera Operator, Chic Waterson - Camera Operator, Gene Callahan - Production Designer, Carmen Dillon - Production Designer, Willy Holt - Production Designer, Douglas Slocombe - Cinematographer, Colette Baudot - Cinematographer, Richard Roth - Producer, Tessa Davies - Set Designer, Pierre Charron - Set Designer, Derek Ball - Sound/Sound Designer, Bill Rowe - Sound/Sound Designer, Lillian Hellman - Screen Story, Alvin Sargent - Screenwriter
This was the film for which Vanessa Redgrave won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, leading to her notorious acceptance speech in which she indirectly expressed support for the anti-Semitic Palestine Liberation Organization.
The young Lillian and the young Julia, daughter of a wealthy Jewish family being raised by her grandparents in the U.S., enjoy a childhood together and an extremely close relationship in late adolescence. Later, while medical-student/physician Julia attends Oxford and the University of Vienna and studies with such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Lillian suffers through revisions of her play with her mentor and sometime lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards) at a New England beachhouse.
After becoming a celebrated playwright, Lillian is invited to a writers' conference in Russia. Julia, having taken on the battle against Nazism, enlists Lillian en route to smuggle money through Nazi Germany which will assist in the Anti-Nazi cause. It is a dangerous mission, especially for a Jewish intellectual on her way to Russia.
During a brief meeting with Julia on this trip, Lillian learns that her friend has a child named Lily, living with a baker in Alsace. Shortly after her return to the United States, Lillian is informed of Julia's murder. The details of her death are shrouded in secrecy. Lillian unsuccessfully looks for Julia's child in Alsace and also discovers that Julia's family wants nothing to do with the child, if she exists, probably for financial reasons.
Production
Faye Dunaway turned down the role of Lillian Hellman.
The film was shot on location in England and France.
Menschen am Sonntag •Redes •Friend Indeed •They Live Again •Tracking the Sleeping Death •That Mothers Might Live •The Story of Doctor Carver •Weather Wizards •While America Sleeps •Help Wanted •One Against the World •The Ash Can Fleet •Forgotten Victory
1940s
Stuffie •The Great Meddler •The Old South •A Way in the Wilderness •Forbidden Passage •Your Last Act •The Greenie •The Lady or the Tiger? •Kid Glove Killer •Eyes in the Night •The Seventh Cross •Little Mister Jim •My Brother Talks to Horses •The Search •Act of Violence
