Being Julia (2004)

For me, this fact raises Bening to my 2nd place after Streep in my TOP Actress List... Usually, Brits (especially if from higher society) are played by Brits themselves; main cast members of Being Julia are British or Irish as well. Bening is really superb and for this role she got lots of praise, incl. Academy Award nomination.For many modern viewers, the plot may seem slow at times, as the screenplay is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. But the background and atmosphere are well depicted - perhaps due to the fact that both directing and cinematography were performed by Europeans (Hungarians). Highly recommended to those fond of middle/high class life in the 1930ies. and/or intrigues and events related to theater and production.

This was one of those movies -- once you've seen the coming attraction, or even just the movie poster, you know the entire plot.Annette Benning will swan and project and play the diva; Jeremy Irons will speak in plummy tones and wear ascots; there will be an affair, heartbreak, bon mots, and a happy ending of some sort.There will be pearls and furs and character actresses, like Miriam Margolyes, to huff and puff and blow the plot along. There will be vintage automobiles and cucumber sandwiches.What there won't be is any surprise.So, I was mostly, politely, bored.But then I saw something that broke my heart and threw the whole thing into mighty ironic contrast: Juliet Stevenson, there, in the shadowed background, in the drudge housedress, carrying a tray of snacks, playing a maid.Juliet Stevenson!!! Juliet Stevenson stole my heart forever in 1990's "Truly, Madly, Deeply." I hadn't seen an actress that captivating since watching Golden Age movies on TV as a kid. She had all the heart of an Ingrid Bergman, all the intelligence and fire of a Bette Davis.I left the theater pulsing with anticipation to see more, and more, movies with Juliet Stevenson in the lead, playing fascinating, funny, full of heart female roles.And ... those movies never came. Stevenson is not a blow-up doll. Her nose is a micrometer longer than female stars' noses are allowed to be; her jaw is strong. And, so, she has been denied her well-earned chance at stardom, and those of us who love her, and who love seeing intelligent, talented women on screen, have been cheated.What do we get to look at? We get to look at women who look like animated blow-up dolls, and we get to look at butt-ugly male stars with no discernible talent other than being butt ugly. You know exactly what male stars I'm talking about; I don't have to name them here. But one of them has starred in romantic scenes opposite incredibly beautiful women like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet. Yeah, him.Men are comforted: you can be ugly and get the girl. Women are punished: you can be as talented as Juliet Stevenson, yet you have to play the maid in the background with the drudge dress and the snack tray if you look like anything other than a blow-up doll.So, that's what "Being Julia" became about for me. Some have compared it to "All About Eve." Look, in 1950, the terrific role of Margo Channing when to Bette Davis, who was not a great beauty, but who was a great actress.We need more casting like that today.

This is a story about insiders in a theater in London in 1938. In particular it's about Julia Lambert (Annette Benning) and how she deals with a challenge of being sidelined in her career by middle age. When your livelihood and self identity depend to a great extent on physical appearance aging must be particularly difficult. So, one wonders to what extent Benning, who was in her mid-forties when she filmed this, is playing a part and to what extent she is playing herself. And that is the basic theme of this movie - when can you tell whether Julia is acting or when she is being truthful. Does *she* even know. More generally, we are all actors; in a given day how often do we speak what is really on our minds? How easy is it for us to determine the real thoughts of our friends? This film brings those questions to mind.With the exception of Shaun Evans, playing an all too innocent, star-struck young American who improbably strikes up an affair with Julia, the actors turn in good performances. Jeremy Irons, who plays Julia's husband, is atypically without his usual existential angst. I particularly liked Juliet Stevenson who plays Julia's knowing dresser with great believability. I suppose, given the story line, this is an actor's movie and certainly without the fine cast there would not be much to recommend this slight story.The period setting is nicely done with the old cars, hair styles, clothes, and so on. There are some scenes, like a large dance, that can excite the imagination. I would have thought that by 1938 the rise of Nazi Germany would have been mentioned more than once, and even that mention being rather naive (or was that meant to be ironic?)

Adapted from the novel 'Theatre', it is about the life of legendary West End actress Julia Lambert (Annette Benning). It's the 30s London, and Julia is getting on in years. But yet her name within the West End circles is indisputable.Jimmie Langton (Michael Gambon) is the ghostly mentor by Julia's side, Michael Gosselyn (Jeremy Irons) is her husband, theatre owner Dolly (Miriam Margolyes) has quite a joyful personality, American Tom Fennell (Shaun Evans) has always been a fan of Julia's acting and it's the meeting with his idol Julia that a May-December affair began.But soon later, Julia found out that Tom is using her to get close to an upcoming star Avice (Lucy Punch) and Julia soon plotted her way to revenge on the man who had finally given her a whole new lease of life.As the saying goes - 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', Julia really lives up to that manner. She uses her name to get even with the young starlet in a new production she is in with her young co-star.The way how Annette Benning acted in the movie really shows how much a famous theatre actress will go to get her way back. Smashing.