Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg’s visually innovative, Cannes Grand Prix-winning adaptation of August Strindberg’s renowned 1888 play brings to scalding life the excoriating words of the stage’s preeminent surveyor of all things rotten in the state of male-female relations. Miss Julie vividly depicts the battle of the sexes and classes that ensues when a wealthy businessman’s daughter (Anita Björk, in a fiercely emotional performance) falls for her father’s bitter servant. Celebrated for its unique cinematic style (and censored upon its first release in the United States for its adult content), Sjöberg’s film was an important turning point in Scandinavian cinema. —The Criterion Collection
Stage actor and director who made an impressive silent film debut in 1929 with “The Strongest”, a wrenching, documentary-like portrayal of seal hunters. Sjoberg became disillusioned with the film medium after the advent of sound and returned to working in the theatre until the 1940s, when he helped revive the Swedish cinema with such fine films as the pacifist “They Staked Their Lives” (1940), the haunting allegorical fantasy “The Road to Heaven” (1942) and the powerful Ingmar Bergman-scripted “Torment” (1944), starring Alf Kjellin and future director Mai Zetterling. Sjoberg reteamed the romantic leads from the latter film for the poignant love story, “Iris and the Lieutenant” (1946).
Over the course of forty years Sjoberg made almost twenty films; busiest from 1940 to 1956 he became one of the finest and most important directors in the history of Scandinavian film. Sjoberg’s greatest film is generally held to be his striking version of August Strindberg’s play, “Miss Julie”… read more
A great translation from play to screen. Interesting to see how Sjoberg connects the scenes from the past with the present. The contrast of the servants and locals having a fun party,with Julie and Jean in a serious,sometimes hostile,discussion is very effective. Fantastic performances.
I was floored by this. It's been a LONG TIME since I've been invested enough in a character and their circumstances to where I didn't want the story to go the way it did. Also, there was that startling and absolutely beautiful chain of images from the marriage pyre....I was reminded of the crumbling of the windmill from "Frankenstein" during this sequence. Quite, quite, quite an extraordinary motion picture.
This is my first Swedish film that isn't an Ingmar Bergman film and I would have to say wow what an amazing movie........! The dream sequences, the camera work, the closeups, the paintings, the ENDING! It was cool to see some of Ingmar Bergman's regulars in this movie like Max Von Sydow, but it's really the character of Miss Julie who really shines. Gradually we begin to learn about her childhood, upbringing and her parents. She's a very complex character. Everything flows so smoothly in this movie, the cuts, the cinematography, the brilliant acting. I definitely look forward to watching this gem again! Highly recommend for Swedish Film lovers!!!
"There are movies that make news and movies that are news," begins J Hoberman in the Voice. "World on a Wire is one of the latter. Suddenly
“MISS Julie” is one of the classic title with a quite controversial theme. This Swedish film discuss the themes that are still somewhat sensational in its time: sex (and related matters). The interesting… read review
August Stringberg’s famous stage play seemingly doesn’t lend itself to the cinematic form, given its limited number of characters and settings, but it’s been oft filmed nonetheless, most impressively… read review
