After buying the book The Pedro Almodovar Archives by Paul Duncan,I took a look at what was the most recent movie covered in the book. Whilst having known about the title,I had been unaware that this was the film maker behind it,leading to me meeting Julieta.
View on the film:
Originally planning to call the feature Silence and as detailed in the Archives book by Paul Duncan that he originally planned the script to be filmed in New York, but "In the end I was defeated by uncertainty; I wasn't sure of the script or my ability to direct in English." leading it to be left aside for two years,until he picked it up again for a set in Spain version which he feels "Admirers of Alice Munro should see in my Julieta a tribute to the Canadian writer."
Moulding the material two years later on a opening shot of red fabric with a heart beating within it, which gets folded into a shot of a small naked man sculpture that gets placed into the hands of Julieta, setting off a recurring motif when Ava is depicted creating a small male sculpture, that represents the power of woman as the creator of man, and the shared personal straight they hold in the hands of writer/directing auteur Pedro Almodovar's creation.
Revealing later that he and his regular composer Alberto Iglesias had long discussions over finding the right tone for the score,Almodovar again displays his remarkable eye for colour coding stylisation, with Almodovar & cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu placing red (a prominent colour across Almodovar's works) into every shot, stirring up a intense atmosphere from the grief and sorrow running in the blood of the characters, which is reflected on screen in a bright red.
Draining all colour bar the beating red from bringing light to Julieta's life,Almodovar reveals that he went into the production with the mind-set that "From the outset I had in mind that Julieta is a Drama,not a Melodrama." which Almodovar expresses with a thoughtfulness of toning down his distant flamboyant colours, for startling pristine white peeled along wide-angle shots of a grieving Julieta living a hollow existence, detached from all the colour of life.
Covering the first half of Julieta's life,Adriana Ugarte gives a exceptional performance as the younger Julieta, who even in moments of happiness in the early days of her marriage to Xoan are carried by Ugarte with a melancholy pinned underneath, which Ugarte rings dry of sorrow when tragedy lands on the shore.
Absolutely mesmerising when sitting alone mourning on a bench against the plain white background, Emma Suarez links her older Julieta to Ugarte's younger version, with the aftermath of the tragedy remaining red raw and being pressed down by Suarez on the withdrawn shoulders of Julieta.
For only the third adaptation he has ever done, Almodovar bakes the clay of three unconnected short stories by Canadian writer , which fittingly results in a fragmented state that captures Julieta, who each time she tries to put her family photo past together, finds that the fragments never neatly slot together.
Leaving a mark on Julieta from the death of a stag seen outside a train as she makes love with the newly-met Xoan, Almodovar takes to heart the original Silence title of the picture, with the grief and sorrow being carried silently by Julieta, who Almodovar gives a wonderfully fragmented ending to, after Julieta has waited for her family with a bright red cake.
View on the film:
Originally planning to call the feature Silence and as detailed in the Archives book by Paul Duncan that he originally planned the script to be filmed in New York, but "In the end I was defeated by uncertainty; I wasn't sure of the script or my ability to direct in English." leading it to be left aside for two years,until he picked it up again for a set in Spain version which he feels "Admirers of Alice Munro should see in my Julieta a tribute to the Canadian writer."
Moulding the material two years later on a opening shot of red fabric with a heart beating within it, which gets folded into a shot of a small naked man sculpture that gets placed into the hands of Julieta, setting off a recurring motif when Ava is depicted creating a small male sculpture, that represents the power of woman as the creator of man, and the shared personal straight they hold in the hands of writer/directing auteur Pedro Almodovar's creation.
Revealing later that he and his regular composer Alberto Iglesias had long discussions over finding the right tone for the score,Almodovar again displays his remarkable eye for colour coding stylisation, with Almodovar & cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu placing red (a prominent colour across Almodovar's works) into every shot, stirring up a intense atmosphere from the grief and sorrow running in the blood of the characters, which is reflected on screen in a bright red.
Draining all colour bar the beating red from bringing light to Julieta's life,Almodovar reveals that he went into the production with the mind-set that "From the outset I had in mind that Julieta is a Drama,not a Melodrama." which Almodovar expresses with a thoughtfulness of toning down his distant flamboyant colours, for startling pristine white peeled along wide-angle shots of a grieving Julieta living a hollow existence, detached from all the colour of life.
Covering the first half of Julieta's life,Adriana Ugarte gives a exceptional performance as the younger Julieta, who even in moments of happiness in the early days of her marriage to Xoan are carried by Ugarte with a melancholy pinned underneath, which Ugarte rings dry of sorrow when tragedy lands on the shore.
Absolutely mesmerising when sitting alone mourning on a bench against the plain white background, Emma Suarez links her older Julieta to Ugarte's younger version, with the aftermath of the tragedy remaining red raw and being pressed down by Suarez on the withdrawn shoulders of Julieta.
For only the third adaptation he has ever done, Almodovar bakes the clay of three unconnected short stories by Canadian writer , which fittingly results in a fragmented state that captures Julieta, who each time she tries to put her family photo past together, finds that the fragments never neatly slot together.
Leaving a mark on Julieta from the death of a stag seen outside a train as she makes love with the newly-met Xoan, Almodovar takes to heart the original Silence title of the picture, with the grief and sorrow being carried silently by Julieta, who Almodovar gives a wonderfully fragmented ending to, after Julieta has waited for her family with a bright red cake.