NZIFF Film Review: "Julieta" (2016).

From the director of All About My Mother and I'm So Excited comes Julieta. This Spanish drama film adapted and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and based on three short stories from the book Runaway by Alice Munro. A chance encounter causes a woman to reflect on the tragic circumstances surrounding the disappearance of her daughter.

In 2009, Almodóvar bought the film rights to Munro's three short stories, Chance, Soon and Silence, from her 2004 book Runaway. He later said he specifically asked for the rights due to the pivotal scenes that take place on a train. Almodóvar originally thought the film would serve as his English-language film debut, with American actress Meryl Streep in the lead role, playing three versions of the character at twenty, forty and sixty years old. He met with Streep, who agreed to the concept, and found locations in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where Munro based her stories. But he eventually shelved the idea, unhappy at the prospect of filming in either country and uncomfortable with his ability to write and film in English. Years later, members of his production team suggested that the script should be revisited but, this time, setting the film in Spain and making it in Spanish. In January 2015, in an interview with the Financial Times after attending a preview of the musical of his film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at the Playhouse Theatre, London, Almodóvar the film's original title, Silence. However, during post-production, the film's title was changed to Julieta to avoid confusion with Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016). Almodóvar stated that the film was a return to drama and his "cinema of women", but claimed that the tone was different to that of his other feminine dramas like The Flower of My Secret (1995), All About My Mother (1999) and Volver (2006). He explained that he had finished the script, but was in the process of casting. By late May, Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Darío Grandinetti, and Susi Sánchez were cast. In preparation for the film, Almodóvar encouraged Suárez and Ugarte to read Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), a book on mourning, and Emmanuel Carrère's Other Lives but Mine (2009) for inspiration. Almodóvar also recommended Suárez watch Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows (1958) and Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002), and that she contemplate Lucian Freud's paintings. Suárez also watched Almodóvar's complete filmography and stayed alone in Madrid to prepare for the character. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early August. Filming took place throughout Madrid, Aragón, Andalucía, and Galicia, Spain.

The film stars Suárez, Ugarte, Grandinetti, and Sánchez. This is a woman's picture in the best sense of the term, anchored by bravura turns from Suárez and Ugarte. Something of a departure for the Spanish auteur, it also seals his status as a cinematic master. Never that this was much in doubt.

Almodóvar's tribute to a mother's pain is overflowing with the anguish and ecstasy of life.

Simon says Julieta receives:

Also, see my reviews for I'm So Excited (Los amantes pasajeros) and Endless Poetry (Poesía Sin Fin).