Miss Julie (2014)

	Also Known As: Fräulein Julie
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Liv Ullmann
	Actors: Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
	Country: N
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 29.10.2014, CineStar5, NFDL2014, OV English without subtitles
Synopsis: On Midsummer’s Eve of 1890, the young aristocrat Julie (Chastain) dances with her father’s house servant John (Farrell). In the estate kitchen, Julie meets John, a valet. She invites him to another dance and, despite their class difference, perseveres in seeking out this educated, experienced man. The servant’s formal reticence soon gives way to the couple’s mutual attraction. During the course of the night, Julie and John circle around.
Review: The story has been written for the theater and this becomes clear as we mostly see one room, the kitchen  and seldomly the bedroom of Kathleen (Morton) or the stairs close to the kitchen and at the beginning and the end the beautiful park around the castle. The story is quite simple even if the evolution of the characters is not simple. The dialogues are very good and bring a lot of drama that Chastain manages to communicate subtly covering herewith many feelings along the movie. Colin Farrell's gestures are sometimes well mastered as well, but for several scenes completely and very exaggeratedly shaky when he should show an inner dilemma.  The light was well mastered but the focus not at all. Or I misunderstood something. For instance, during a dialogue between Julie and John the focus is done on a cup on the table and the rest is slightly blurred. And this happened often, that the focus is done on something during the whole scene and not on the one or the other character.
Rating: 4 /10