On a warm evening this August, crowds gathered in the courtyard of Somerset House for the UK première of Almodóvar’s Julieta. Thousands of people sat on picnic blankets facing a huge projector screen and the excitement was audible. But unbeknown to any of them, Pedro himself was in the wings, and when he walked out onto the podium cheers that seemed to thank him for his life’s work reached an emotional crescendo. With his face and his words he expressed surprise at such a reception outside of his home country. He then went on to explain how he is an old man now, that viewers may notice this within the film, which is 'about trying to avoid death through sex’.
Indeed, the vast majority of Julieta consists of wistful flashbacks to a time when Julieta (Adriana Ugarte) and her daughter Antía (Blanca Parés) were not estranged, when they lived happily by the sea with her fisherman husband Xoan (Daniel Grao). But when the daughter blames her mother for her father’s sudden death (although neither the viewer nor the mother know that), and disappears without a trace, Julieta begins to live a half-life. She tries to shed the skin of her love-torn past and move to Portugal with a man who knows nothing of her story. The film weaves between the present and past with Alberto Iglesias’s jazzy score for a mournful accompaniment, as a mother desperately tries to understand why she lost her daughter and how or if she could get her back.
Julieta still has all the tropes of Almodóvar’s earlier melodramas – the storyline revolves around women and mothers and comas, and is told through letters and flashbacks – but it is shot with a slightly more contemplative eye; there are still flashes of his signature red but the backdrop seems faded. Viewers should not expect the melodrama, sex and adrenaline of Mala Educación or Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. This is a film that signals a certain maturatity in Almodóvar’s cinematic style, one that chooses to hold back on the over-the-top camp of former years. There is still sex and colour, but with an undercurrent of loneliness and loss, exploring how these sentiments can bring about old age far quicker than one would want.
Julieta is in cinemas from August 26th. For viewings see http://www.julietafilm.com/showtimes
