Julia

Synopsis: Feature film. Concerns the lifelong relationship between playwright Lillian Hellman (Fonda) and Julia (Redgrave), a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to follow her ideals. In the 1930s, while Hellman struggles to establish herself as a playwright with the help of her lover, Dashiell Hammett (Robards), Julia battles the exigencies of the Nazi regime. Visiting Julia in Germany, Lillian realises how much her friend’s idealism has cost her, both physically and financially. Lillian is asked by Julia’s friend Johann (Schell) to smuggle a large sum of money from Paris to Germany, the better to fight the Nazis from within. Julia is murdered, and Lillian searches for her daughter Lili whom she promised to care for. Includes a scene in Moscow where Lillian sees a Russian production of Hamlet. Intercut with the performance (through which Lillian sleeps) is a sequence in which Julia is seen being murdered by Nazis thus contrasting a real tragedy with a staged one.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 1977
Keywords: Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)