Fröken Julie

Without prior knowledge of the story (the book), this movie doesn't really make a lot of sense: the characters actions seem to be slightly deranged and pointless, nothing gets explained but only hinted at through dreamy monologues and flashbacks. The dialogues suffer from the very same vague disease and even though the acting is good, the plot feels silly and the characters mentally unstable for the most part. Visually speaking it's very appealing, save for the female protagonist's look and makeup that feel too strong and modern and don't match with the general vibe. I will try to watch another adaptation of the same story.

So this is the first feature film from the recently started production company "Hat on Lady" and its owner Mattias Dimfelt. It's not easy making a movie when you haven't done one before so for a first, this one holds up pretty good.

The movie is also quite nice to look at with some really enjoyable outdoor shots of Skottorp outside of Laholm in Halland, Sweden.

The movie is loosely based on the classical play by the Swedish writer August Strindberg "Fröken Julie" which centers around the complicated love-story between the rich upper-class woman Julie and the servant Jean.

I have to commend the movie makers for daring to mix up relatively unknown actors with more famous and established ones. This is something I hardly ever see in films from Sweden where the former hardly ever gets the chance to play a leading roll right off the bat. In Fröken Julie tough this is the case.

The "new" ones I'm talking about is Nathalie Söderqvist as "Julie" and Klas Ekegren as "Jean". They've both come from the world of theater, drama and films but are hardly known at all in Sweden.

The more known, established ones are Görel Crona and Lina Englund and even tough Nathalie and Klas do OK I must say that the favorite performance for me personally was given by Lina Englund who's poor, Christian serving girl comes off as the most genuine and real.

The score from Mark Ambervill must also not be forgotten. It sounds great and manages to not only capture the "feel" of the film but also gives it a bigger impact.

Also the camera crew shooting and making this movie consisted mostly of film students aged 18 to 25 making their very first feature film and it looks just as professionally made as any other movie.

To conclude, for anyone who's ever been captivated by the Swedish writer August Strindberg's classical story of Julie and Jean this movie offers a different perspective which is well worth the watch.