Thursday, February 23, 2017

Julieta (2016)

Director/writer Pedro Almodóvar's latest, about a woman longing for her estranged daughter, with flashbacks to before the birth, is predictably sensuous, passionate, and saturated with color and we predictably liked it a lot. In fact, there's so much plot that that sentence does it no justice.

The two actresses in the title role, Emma Suárez as the 50-something Julieta and Adriana Ugarte in her 20s, are dynamic and, well, passionate. Both are new to me but have plenty of experience in their and Almodóvar's native Spain. Ugarte, especially in early scenes in her fabulous 80s wardrobe (designed by Sonia Grande), strongly reminded us of Sharon Stone--compare this photo to that one.

Almodóvar (last blogged for I'm So Excited) adapted this script from three short stories: Chance, Soon, and Silence, from the 2004 Alice Munro book Runaway. Apparently he considered making this an English-language movie but changed his mind and set it in Spain.

The entire moody soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias (last blogged for scoring I'm So Excited), Almodóvar's frequent collaborator, can be streamed from this link.

Though not Oscar-nominated, Julieta has a number of nominations and was chosen as one of the Top Five Foreign Films by the National Board of Review. Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 84% and its audiences 75. We saw it on the big screen three weeks ago, but fans of the fiery Almodóvar should not miss it when it comes out on DVD late next month.

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