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Being Julia
Review by: Ray Dademo
RayDademo@TheCinemaSource.com
In his essay, "Essential Close-ups," director Istvan Szabo sets out to
discover the one specific attribute that applies, explicitly to the art of
filmmaking. Is there any novelty to films, or are they all just an
assortment of other forms? As Szabo realizes, "the moving picture is
capable of showing us a living human face in close up: this ability is the
source of its special energy." His latest work, the 1930s period piece
Being Julia, not only utilizes this thought, but grounds it as the film's
foundation. What we are seeing is, in fact, one immense close-up of one
immense character; a piece that relies entirely upon the charisma and
articulacy of its leading lady. For a director like Szabo "the energy and
strength of a feature film is supplied by the face of the actor or
actress" -- and what a face he's chosen (but more on that, later).
Being Julia's central character, Julia Lambert, is an invention of W.
Somerset Maugham, via his aptly named novella, “Theatre.” The reigning
queen of London's West End, Julia is the sort of vainglorious stage
actress who, as her own son puts it, "has a performance for everyone." She
recycles old stage dialogue, sheds tears on cue, and encourages the
advances of all her admirers (male and female; gay and lesbian). In the
world Szabo, Maugham, and screenwriter Ronald Harwood have created for
her, Julia is the mistress of all she surveys. Everyone she associates
with -- men, women, co-stars, family -- seem completely captivated by
her; not out of love, but worship. Julia requires her relations to build
their lives around her, preserving her star spot, on and off-stage. Even
her grown son (in a moment that is touching, bizarre, and completely
appropriate) feels compelled to tell his mother that he's lost his
virginity, just after it's happened. Despite her star status, Julia feels
discontented, and -- as though she were a Mrs. Stone in need of a Roman
Spring -- falls into the arms, and bed of Tom Fennel (Shaun Evans), an
American who equates mattress-dancing with social-climbing. Soon, she
finds herself completely seduced by the young charmer and enters into a
May-December romance -- for once throwing caution to wind and opening
herself to genuine emotion.
The discourse bears more than a passing resemblance to 1950's All About
Eve, with the Tom Fennel character functioning as the male-version of Eve
Harrington (Julia even has a Thelma Ritter-esque housekeeper played by
Juliet Stevenson). Julia Lambert, like Bette Davis' Margo Channing, is a
vulgarian masquerading her way through high society. She drinks heavily
and, more tellingly, take sheer delight in making others uncomfortable.
The strongest dissimilarity between the characters is a sexual one;
Lambert is a great beauty and uses her feminine wiles as leverage. The
result is Margo Channing, as played by Vivien Leigh -- a "rotten bitch"
with more sexual
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