Miss Julie (The Criterion Collection)
List Price:
Our Price: $15.48
You Save: $24.47 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $11.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Anita Bjork, Palme, Von SydowBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Swedish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Restored, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-01-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection
DVD Reviews of Miss Julie (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Both Beautiful and Well-done.
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Sjoberg managed to put his own stamp on this film version of Strindberg's play while remaining true to the spirit of the original. Where the theatrical drama took place within the confines of a kitchen, with exterior action being suggested by the dialog or off-stage sounds, the film opens up to a vivid and eye-entrancing exterior world of imagery, motion, and and pastoral vistas captured in a beautiful black and white cinematography that is sometimes expressionistic, other times impressionistic.
The expansive range of visual stimuli certainly gives a different feel, or perhaps it should be said that it adds an extra dimension to that of the play, but the core elements of the drama remain the same - the battle of the sexes, class struggle, new forms of thought versus reactionary opposition, and the psychological factors that lie behind human behavior.
Ironically, in my opinion, the sweeping and spacious scenery in the film adds a more comprehensive and inclusive touch of reality to the story than the confined stage version, but the grandeur of those scenes almost introduces a romantic element, which was far from Strindberg's intention in the play.
While this is a naturalistic story, one supposed to be based on strict realism, it could be argued that circumstances are so extreme in the plot, that while it may be realistic, it is by no means typical. Miss Julie has been warped by the obsessions of a mother whose ultra-feminist views border on lunacy. This man-hating outlook is at war in Miss Julie's soul with the natural carnal attraction she feels for the opposite sex. Her inner conflicts drive her toward an unfortunate affair with a servant - a man who is coarse and a cad beneath a thin veneer of polish and civility.
Given the social restraints of the time and place, the outcome of the of the mixing of all these volatile ingredients seems very credible, and realistic, as presented by the film. But the thing which gives life to both film and play is the vivid characterizations of Miss Julie, and to a lesser degree, Jean, her lover. Anita Bjork is excellent in this film version as Miss Julie. Her appearance is aristocratic, and her speech and mannerisms seem tailor-made for the role. Though her role calls for extreme exhibitions of emotion, she delivers a performance that is pure and unmarred by melodrama.
The pastoral glimpses of Swedish rural life of the late 19th century, with the peasants' celebration of mid-summer's eve provides an interest which is both quaint and piquant. The elegance of the lives of the gentry is very effectively contrasted with the harsh restricted everyday existence of the peasantry.
Exquisitely filmed, with excellent performances all-around, this is a movie that is well-above average for it's time(1950), or any other time. It was considered daring and experimental when it was released, and, in my book, stacks up well against modern films; truthful and probing, but not stooping to bad taste. Among the extra features on the Criterion DVD are a video essay by Peter Cowie and excerpts of an interview with the director, Alf Sjoberg.
More Miss Julie (The Criterion Collection) reviews:
1
1
Description of Miss Julie (The Criterion Collection)
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg s visually innovative, Cannes Grand Prix winning adaptation of August Strindberg s renowned 1888 play (censored upon its first release in the United States for its adult content) 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 Bjork, in a fiercely emotional performance) falls for her father s bitter servant. Celebrated for its unique cinematic style, Sjöberg s film was an important turning point in Scandinavian cinema.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New video essay by film historian Peter Cowie
Archival television interview with director Alf Sjöberg
A 2006 television documentary about the play Miss Julie and author August Strindberg
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film scholars Peter Matthews and Birgitta Steene
The caged finch that figures in Miss Julie's credit sequence sums up August Strindberg's tragic heroine all too well--she may be "jewel of the house", but she's also trapped. In Alf Sjöberg's expressionist adaptation, Anita Björk plays the high-born Julie to Ulf Palme's laborer's son Jean (with her feline features, Björk resembles a fair-haired Vivien Leigh). As much as the controlling aristocrat and social climbing valet detest each other, desire cannot be denied. Other impediments include the times (late-19th century Sweden), the ever-present staff (notably Max von Sydow's lusty groom), and Jean's upright fiancée (Märta Dorff). Unlike the thematically similar Lady Chatterly's Lover, their affair blooms and withers over the course of a single Midsummer's Eve, though Sjöberg's dissolves to dreams and memories lends their brief encounter an epic dimension (Jean has been smitten with Julie since childhood).
Like his protégé Ingmar Bergman, Sjöberg divided his time between stage and screen--the same as his theatrically trained leads. Though they remain fully clothed, suggestions of sado-masochism led American censors to ban the film in 1951. Shot by August's descendant, Göran Strindberg, the Cannes Grand Prize winner bears the otherworldly look of Bergman's The Magician combined with the hothouse atmosphere of Elia Kazan's A Streetcar named Desire. As Peter Cowie notes in the illuminating video essay, Strindberg's stormy marriage to a baroness inspired his masterpiece (not for nothing did he title his autobiography The Son of a Servant). In the booklet, Birgitta Steene puts the playwright's career in further perspective, while Peter Mathews does the honors for the director. The supplements conclude with a short Sjöberg interview from 1966, a moving made-for-TV documentary from 2006 (Miss Julie: 100 Years in the Limelight), and the US theatrical trailer. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Senso (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-02-22; DVD
Best price: $15.67
Price in other shops:
La RondeLA; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $20.74
Price in other shops:
The Makioka Sisters (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-06-14; DVD
Best price: $11.23
Price in other shops:
Identification of a Woman (Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2011-10-25; DVD
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
The Phantom Carriage (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-09-27; DVD
Best price: $17.10
Price in other shops:
The Complete Jean Vigo (Ā propos de Nice / Taris / Zéro de conduite / L'Atalante) (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-08-30; DVD
Best price: $18.55
Price in other shops:
Kuroneko (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-10-18; DVD
Best price: $18.57
Price in other shops:
Island of Lost Souls (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-10-25; DVD
Best price: $16.27
Price in other shops:
Sawdust and Tinsel (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $22.81
Price in other shops:
Miss JulieTCFHE/MGM; Release date: 2000-05-30; DVD
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops: