The best films of 2016 | INTELLIGENT CINEMATOGRAPHY |
JULIETA | Pedro Almodóvar, Spain |
These memories lead us through the film. We meet Julieta as a young teacher, we witness a fateful train trip that leads to a death and introduces Julieta to her husband Xoan (Daniel Grao); we see how life gives her a daughter but later changes her in ways she’s only now coming to terms with. In many close-ups of his two lead actresses, Almodóvar invites us to read Julieta as an emotional mystery. Once again he’s supremely confident in the unexplained and maestro-like in the reveal. He plays one very special trick. The transition between the two actresses happens mid-scene: as Julieta’s daughter dries her mother’s hair with a towel and she momentarily covers her face. It’s a striking metaphor for the complicated, claustrophobic love between a mother and her daughter as the mother changes appearance before our eyes.
Pedro Almodóvar returns to female-focused filmmaking with a darker than usual drama.