Julieta (2016)

(Post originally published on the Octavio Guerra Royo's Website)

Pedro Almodóvar, as director and screenwriter, has a rare magic ability to transform any story in an emotional roller coaster. Julieta, his 2016 film confirms it.

One of the most amazing things of the film is the characters’ aging transitions. You can’t distinguish if Julieta and her daughter, young and older, are different actresses or the same, and you need to check the casting to be sure of it.

The photography is another amazing piece of work, where some natural backgrounds look as paintings and some scenes, as the one of the deer running aside of the train, looks completely surreal, in the boundaries between pleasant dreams and nightmares.

The colors, the architectural contrasts, the artful decor, and the sea and mountains landscapes are completely breathtaking.

But the most remarkable thing about the film is its structure, the screenplay itself. The story, although apparently told in a linear way, moves in a sort of Moebius ribbon, in which the narration goes through the same moments from a different perspective.

Julieta (Emma Suarez) a middle-aged woman, is moving from Madrid to Portugal with her boyfriend Lorenzo. Casually, she runs into Bea, the former best friend of her daughter Antia. Through Bea, Julieta learns that, after twelve years without knowing about her, Antia is living in Switzerland married and with three children.

With all her wounds opened, Julieta cancels her plans and brakes with Lorenzo, moving where she uses to live with Antia, hoping someday that her daughter communicates with her. Alone with her pain, Julieta starts to write her memories, the story of her relations with Antia’s father and the tragic events that drove to her daughter’s departure when she still was a teenager, leaving Julieta completely devastated.  

Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte, as Julieta and a younger Julieta, respectively, make an incredible acting job. The story is told with an increasing intensity that grabs the attention of the viewer until its sweet-bitter ending.