Julia (1977) on Netflix
Playwright Lillian Hellman's oldest friend, Julia, is fighting fascism in Europe. Julia asks Lillian to carry money into Nazi Germany on her way to a writers' conference in the Soviet Union.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.0/1011,543 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
Lillian Hellman and Julia grow up close, Julia raised by wealthy grandparents in the United States. Julia goes on to study medicine at Oxford and in Vienna, where she learns from figures such as Sigmund Freud. Lillian, a writer, works through revisions of her play at a New England beach house with her mentor and lover, Dashiell Hammett. When Nazi thugs overrun Julia's Vienna university and she is hurt protecting others, Lillian rushes to Vienna, but Julia is removed for treatment and the hospital says it has no record of her. Lillian stays in Europe searching for her without success. Years later, a celebrated playwright, Lillian is asked to attend a writers' conference in the Soviet Union, and Julia, fighting fascism, wants her to carry money into Germany on the way.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Julia (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Fred Zinnemann later said that Lillian Hellman in her own mind owned half the Spanish Civil War, would portray herself in situations that were not true, and though a brilliant writer was "a phony character".
- In a 1979 television interview with Dick Cavett, author Mary McCarthy said of Hellman that "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'", and Hellman responded by filing a $2,500,000 defamation suit against McCarthy, Cavett and PBS.
- After Redgrave was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Jewish Defense League objected because she had narrated and helped fund the documentary The Palestinian, which supported a Palestinian state, and it picketed the Oscar ceremony.
- In 1983 New York psychiatrist Muriel Gardiner claimed to be the model for the character named Julia in Pentimento and in the movie Julia; Hellman, who never met Gardiner, said that "Julia" was somebody else.
- The film grossed $20.7 million against a $7 million budget and received a leading 11 nominations at the 50th Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor for Robards, Best Supporting Actress for Redgrave and Best Adapted Screenplay.
- The film marked the movie debut of Meryl Streep, who appears alongside Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy and Maximilian Schell.
