This 1999 version of Miss Julie delivers a contemporary performance of August Strindberg’s 1888 play about sexual repression and class warfare. Miss Julie is an aristocratic young woman who decides to seduces her father’s valet. After the sex, Miss Julie and the valet find that they have nothing in common. They begin to despise one another. Strindberg’s claustrophobic setting and the noir perspective on relationships between members of different social classes may grate on some viewer’s sensibilities. But the play and the movie show that women’s options a hundred years ago were bleak. I liked the performances of Saffron Burrows as Miss Julie, Peter Mullan as the valet, and Maria Doyle Kennedy as the valet’s girl friend. This is another movie I watched in order to understand Stella Adler’s analysis of Strindberg’s work.
Really enjoyed this when I saw it over a decade ago. I never understood why Saffron Burroughs didn’t become another Kiera Knightley. Perhaps her name was too
“hippie.” I believe Peter Mullen later directed a heart-wrenching movie about the Magdalen laundries in Ireland.
Deb, Saffron Burroughs seems to have a polarizing effect on audiences. People either love her or hate her. I love her.
Not a fan of Saffron Burrows. Or Strindberg. (Saffron played the idiotic scientist genetically manipulating huge sharks in the Crideresque DEEP BLUE SEA.)
Speaking of Strindberg, I see they are bringing THE DANCE OF DEATH back for another go on Broadway. Once was more than enough for me.
I like Saffron, but the more I read of Strindberg the more I’m repelled by his darkness. I’m eager to read what Stella Adler has to say about him.
Crideresque?
Anyway, what I liked was the reference to MISS JUILE in Woody Allen’s TO ROME WITH LOVE.
C’mon Bill, you know you loved it. Giant killer sharks? And there was one great surprise (WARNING) when Samuel L. Jackson gets killed (END WARNING).
Burrows does tend to gravitate to “dark” and unsympathetic roles. I like her work a lot. Though like Knightley, she could use a sandwich.
Knightley always seemed “light-weight” to me, Todd. In more ways than one…