Young Julieta is played by the beautiful Adriana Ugarte

For his 20 th film presented at the Cannes film festival, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has struck again : his « Julieta » is constantly surprising and fascinating. Based on three Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro short stories from « Runaway », the script is the story of a beautiful woman who falls in love on a train with a sexy fisherman and raises their daughter, who eventually disappears.

It is a gripping psychological story where the mother is at the center of the film like in many Almodovar movies. Julieta is played by two different actresses, Adriana Ugarte when young, and Emma Suarez when older. Almodovar realized he could not work and write n English and decided to transpose the action to Madrid. The result  is a fabulous film, with strong characters, beautiful cinematography and hilarious moments.

Adriana Ugarte and Rossy de Palma disguised as an old willful cleaning lady

Like Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar can only work in his own world with his fetish actresses. The action takes place in Spain and one of the stars of the   is of course Rossy de Palma, who plays a powerful and omnipresent ugly cleaning lady. Daniel Grao, the sexy boyfriend, is charming and disarming. The lady characters live their lives like we do, make mistakes, fall in love, become crazy when fate hits them but never give up.

Pedro Almodovar between women he loves

When her daughter disappears from her life with no explanation, Julieta just melts and tries to survive. She is elegant, independent (leaves her boyfriend) and eventually, reunites with her daughter.
This film is about the tragedy of  loss and death in a family, the power and unhappiness of beautiful women. It is one of the best and most sensitive Almodovar, with always great camera work by Jean Claude Larrieu, colorful decors and a huge sense of humor. Not to be missed !