Julia (1999)

Strong and Moving!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

As a movie-freak I get to see perhaps almost as many movies as an official critic and, like a critic, I am always looking for The One, the film that stands out from the (vast) crowd and makes you think you haven't wasted any precious time in the watching. But more than that, the one that makes you feel a sense of gain, moving forward in some way, in your thinking or even in your perception of certain things. Only master film makers can make you feel like this, from Tarantino to Eastwood, from Jackson to Spielberg. Then of course you have the rogue directors, the rebels against convention who want to show you something different, not just for different's sake but because they are themselves motivated and inspired by things most people haven't yet approached or experienced. Bergman was such a director, as were the great Italians, Pasolini, Visconti and Fellini, and still we have Bertolucci. Now I find a New Yorker turned Parisian, whose work calls to mind some of these Masters, but through an influence that is subtle enough for it to be subconscious rather than a heavy handed copying of style and technique. Roy Stuart is a new comer to film but by no means to photography - erotic photography - the medium in which he has established himself thoroughly as a Master, admired and collected by large numbers of fans throughout the world. That he has turned from still photography to the moving kind is to our gain, as although young at the medium, he uses it with an almost equal mastery that he uses his still camera, and I don't believe anyone seeing his first film, Giulia, will doubt that he will even surpass in film what successes he has achieved in the world of the erotic photographer. What Roy Stuart achieves - for me - in this first film is the remarkable quality of eroticism throughout, even when the subject before us is not apparently erotic at all….but it is, for him, and he passes that feeling on; it is for him present in the deepest Freudian sense, that is to say ever-present in all situations, in our very beings. And so after watching a work by Stuart one has the almost uncanny feeling that one has just been watching very close friends in their private moments…because what one has actually been watching is a glimpse into a part of oneself with which we haven't necessarily been too familiar before. All great films make us feel this in different ways or measures and we can now welcome Roy Stuart into the great arena of those who make us more aware - as well as entertaining us in the extreme.

Being a fan of the works of Tinto Brass the day would eventually come when I had to see "Giulia". I have read about this movie before, but against my will "Giulia" was the last one from 12 short movies from "Corti circuiti erotici" series (produced by T.Brass) that I happened to see. I started comparing "Giulia" with them all while watching, but somewhere on 20+ minute I realized that this movie stands alone. It is something more than "one of the 12". I was silent, I was in shock, I was amazed. "Oh, how beautiful this movie is! How lovely and again beautiful!". After that night "Giulia" was dominating in my thoughts for several days, and I decided to watch it again to see what does this movie want from me.Strange thing happened then.... The middle of the movie (when I was "captured" for the previous time) and the second half passed without that emotional uplift I experienced for the first time. But this time I was noticing interesting camera work here and there! Some reviews say that camera work is.… well…. not that good. Maybe, I'm not a professional. But I liked it. Emotional aspect worked again (from the different angle though). Did I face another side of the experience of watching "Giulia"? How many layers does this movie have? What should come next? I am excited again and will watch it again and again.Another fact, I believe, worth to be mentioned here to make for the movie. French portions of movie (most of it, in fact) are almost locked for my understanding, so I only got the idea of the action from movie itself and from all those reviews posted here and there. Nevertheless, I don't feel uncomfortable when watching, and the actors' play support my perception very well. So, am I speaking about feelings and emotions here again? Soundtrack, although with annoying stops in musical parts here and there, supports the movie in the best way. You're floating down the stream of movie when get in harmony with sounds – not only music, but voices.Understanding this movie may be difficult, of course. Just like understanding women. Maybe one should not force himself or herself to understand it, but rather try to feel? And give another try later and see what comes then?

GIULIA, The celebration of the FemaleI advise you to buy the director's cut of this great one hour film direct from the director himself since it contains none of the technical faults of the Tinto Brass version. This is an erotic film in the noblest sense of the term. It connects beauty and sensuality with images that are sometimes crude but always poetic. The sex scenes are perfectly integrated into the narrative resulting in a "poetic realism". With Stuart, the sex is real-direct, natural but also exalted, magnified… a gift for the eyes.ANNA BIELLA's commanding presence illuminates this film with her eyes, her contralto voice, her gestures, and her expressions.. Her acting allies vivaciousness and sweetness, naturalness and sophistication. Through her character, Stuart conveys an anticlerical humanist message. Giulia is an independent young woman who is prepared to offer her body and her spirit against all the religious taboos. The film is a kick in the face to all the up tight puritans that construct moral walls against the natural flow of life. This is exemplified is the final section dealing with the Pope and the devil as well as when she urinates against the Vatican wall. Stuart is the enemy of repressive moral and social routines. There is the drama teacher who thinking only of his own pleasure, is put to the test by Giulia who chooses where and when she wants to have sex with him; she invites him to a live sex show and beckons unsuccessfully for him to join her on stage. Stuart condemns him as he condemns male selfishness, religious fanaticism and all that works against human liberation, particularly when it targets that of the woman-like the the foot fetishist and the aggressor in the park, disruption and aggressiveness are attitudes essentially masculine. Giulia says to the drama teacher, "when one is a man you should seek to understand women". And when one is also an artist, to celebrate them … but for that celebration, like the opera singer in "Capriccio" it's the woman who is at the heart of the creation, before the composer, the writer and the director: three men, three artists that depend on her. Bokonon, Août 2006

I swooned when I saw this. I almost wanted to go to France and find Anna Biella so that I could propose to her. This intensely moody experimental one-hour video begins with a French modern-dance class preparing to go to Rome, but Giulia is mysteriously singled out not to go on the field trip.Dancing is only one of Giulia's ambitions. Rebelling against her religious-wacko sister Christine and their religious-wacko mom (Tina Aumont, who still looks gorgeous at the age of 50), Giulia aspires to be an actress. I so much admire kids who can talk back to their parents when they need to. She goes to an audition but discovers nothing more than a casting couch. After a few minutes of playing along, she scrams, but promises her casting director anything he wants the next night. The next night is the highlight, for this is when we witness Giulia moonlighting as a live-sex-act performer at a Parisian strip club. (No faking anything during this lengthy sequence. But no graphic close-ups either, thank goodness. I'm sure this was done in one take and with a real audience.) She invites her sleazy casting director to join her on stage, but in his jealousy and shock he chickens out and leaves. Now, here's my confession: When I was a teen, nudity and sex on film were a major turn-on. I'm no longer a teen, and nudity and sex, scripted and posed, no longer do anything for me at all. But then I saw this scene—and I melted.There are various vignettes as Giulia walks through Paris, chats with a friend, pulverizes a pest in the park, attends a street festival, and so forth. I bet that some of these episodes were not staged, but were real events, shot as they happened. A good example of this is the bit with the Chaplin-like mime in the park, who may not have even known he was appearing in a professional video; he probably thought he was just in someone's home movie. And I bet that was a real night in a real discotheque too. Oh the lucky people who were there that night!Turns out that Giulia wasn't invited to travel with her classmates because her jealous gay dance instructor Gustavo is having an affair with her sex-show partner Eric. She gets to Rome anyway. I imagine that the Vatican hierarchy blew their collective fuse when they found out what that cameraman used his footage for. But hey, what I love about the Italians is that they're not Catholic.WARNING: Don't watch this just before bedtime. If you do (as I did), it will seriously mess with your dreams. And don't be fooled by the seemingly simplistic plot. This is as moody and as atmospheric as a movie can get. The wildly expressionistic editing alone would be enough to get under your skin. But on top of that is the music, composed by director Roy Stuart, which is genuinely haunting, and which is sung to perfection by Anna Biella (Giulia) and Alessandro Corsini (Gustavo).In French and Italian with Italian subtitles. This is the only video I've ever seen that looks more effective and compelling and moody than film. So much for that elusive "film look." Jesus was a vegetarian? Aggressive Hawaiians? Planned animal?OH GOD I LOVE THIS MOVIE!"