Miss Julie (Fröken Julie)
Directed by Alf Shöberg
Adapted by Alf Shöberg from the play by August Strindberg
1951/Sweden
Sandrews
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] “Life is not so idiotically mathematical that only the big eat the small; it is just as common for a bee to kill a lion or at least to drive it mad.” ― August Strindberg, Miss Julie[/box]
I’m still processing this film. It is undeniably beautiful to look at but I don’t know if I quite got the message.
The story takes place in the midst of Midsummer’s Day festivities while the servants are all frolicking and dancing in the fields and barn. Miss Julie (Anita Björk) is the haughty daughter of the count who owns the estate. On this particular day, she has set her sights on Jean (Ulf Palme), one of the house servants. Jean is half-heartedly engaged to the cook.
After several rounds of wrangling, Jean and Miss Julie make love. After this, although the gender and class warfare continues unabated, Julie is in the subservient position. She gradually reveals the story of her life. Her mother was a commoner and feminist who initially refused her aristocrat father but ended up marrying him. She spent the remainder of the marriage getting her revenge. This included dressing young Julie as a boy and demanding that all the women’s work be done by men and vice versa. By the end of the film, it seems that Miss Julie is just carrying out her mother’s evil plan. Max von Sydow appeared in his second screen performance as a (mostly silent) stable hand.
This is the adaptation of a classic of world literature and I’m sure the themes deserve deeper study. Unfortunately, nothing about this movie inspires me to undertake the task. The cinematography and staging is very beautiful, though. Sjöberg won the Grand Prize at Cannes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1TJ3g0_GnU
Trailer
