Julia and Julia (1987)

Julia, an American woman living in Italy, becomes depressed and traumatized after her husband Paolo is killed in a car accident on their wedding day. Six years later, Julia inexplicably ... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Del Monte

Writers:

Peter Del Monte (screenplay and dialogue), Silvia Napolitano (screenplay and dialogue)

Stars:

Kathleen Turner, Gabriele Ferzetti, Gabriel Byrne

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Kathleen Turner	...	Julia
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Paolo's Father
Gabriel Byrne	...	Paolo
Angela Goodwin	...	Paolo's Mother
Sting	...	Daniel
Lidia Broccolino	...	Carla
Norman Mozzato	...	Luigi
Yorgo Voyagis	...	Goffredo
Mirella Falco	...	Woman
Alexander Van Wyk	...	Marco
Francesca Muzio	...	Sara
John Steiner	...	Alex
Bruno Cappelletti	...	Worker
Maurizio Tabani	...	Bartender
Renato Scarpa	...	Police Inspector

Storyline

Julia, an American woman living in Italy, becomes depressed and traumatized after her husband Paolo is killed in a car accident on their wedding day. Six years later, Julia inexplicably finds herself sliding in time between two different worlds, where in one she is still struggling with her grief over Paolo's death, and in the other she is married to Paolo. In the latter time-line, Paolo is alive and well with their five year old son, and Julia is having an affair with a British gentleman named Daniel. The frequent supernatural sliding between these two worlds threaten to drive Julia crazy, as she begins having difficulty in telling them apart, and as she learns which world she is currently living in.

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Plot Keywords:

italy | car accident | affair | shot on video | alternate timeline | 

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Taglines:

A love trapped between two worlds

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

5 February 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Julia and Julia

Filming Locations:

Grado, Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Box Office

Gross USA:

$901,364

Company Credits

Production Co:

RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first movie shot with Sony equipment employing NHK's High Definition Video System (HDVS), an analog video format with 1125 lines of resolution. The video master was then printed to 35mm film to be projected in theaters.

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Connections

Referenced in Serial Mom (1994)

User Reviews

needs a Rod Serling narration

Shooting an entire feature on high-definition (circa 1987) video may have saved the producers a few bucks, but you get what you pay for: in this case a technically shoddy, low-key melodrama with little to recommend it besides an offbeat cast. It was presented at the time as a technological breakthrough, but it's safe to say there were still a few bugs to be worked out of the process: in the late 1980s high-definition video still equaled low-definition film, and the eyesore of too many blurred movements distracts attention away from the story itself. Which may be a blessing in disguise, because the story is just an extended Twilight Zone episode, portentous to the point of self-parody, about a widow of six years who shifts between her lonely life and an alternate reality where her husband is alive, along with the child she never had. Has she suddenly awakened from six years of retroactive amnesia, or is she only hallucinating? The film (can we call it that?) was a big hit in Italy, so maybe it suffers in translation.