As a Sylvia Kristel fan, I waited years to view this obscure West German film, as the title is quite rare. But wow, was it worth the wait! This was worlds better than what I was expecting. An erotic film, that attempts the difficult mix of humor and romance...and succeeds on both counts. The story centers on the handsome young student Paulie, on holiday in the gorgeous Swiss Alps, and on a mission to leave his innocence behind, and to become a man. Surrounded by decadent, beautiful older women, but the lovely Andrea (Sylvia Kristel) is the girl that truly captures his heart. Betrayed by a close friend, and later by his own self indulgent prick of a father, Paulie becomes more confused and angry about his situation.

"Julia," titled after the character Juliet, of Shakespeare fame, covers all the bases of coming of age drama; betrayal, sexual frustration, loss of innocence, and both the joy, and sadness that can come from the first sexual experience. Nice surreal touches are included here as well, especially when it focuses on this kid's off-the-wall, wacko family! My side hurt from laughing so much at the absurd situations and predicaments these people find themselves in.

I have to say, I absolutely love this film, the story, the characters/the gorgeous cast, the pretty cinematography and the wonderful artistic touches etc, and especially the bizarre comedic elements which made this a fun experience. There are some powerful emotional scenes too, that I was not expecting, such as the "love" scene filmed inside the Colosseum in Rome! That was heartbreaking, and awful..a betrayal that nobody should ever have to endure. I'm happy to find this gem, and look forward to showing it to friends. Highly recommended..

One of the unwritten rules for sex films is to depict sex as something enjoyable - perhaps it is a guilty pleasure and some punishment may be afoot, but a pleasure nonetheless. Another is that a once initiated sexual encounter always goes ahead - the punters loath prickteasing.

This film dares touching these rules. The story resolves around an upper middle class family during the summer holidays. They are desperately trying to have a good time, and the emphasis is here on "desperately", because they are just not very at good at it. Sex is the only thing that overcomes their boredom, but even that rarely suffices. This lethargic lot is very hard to excite - the only time anyone got really upset was mother Hildegard when her husband's mistress told her at the family diner table that she was now sleeping with her teenage son as well.

Make no mistake: this is a softporno and nothing else, it does not have a message of any kind. But it is much less predictable than the average genre flick and that makes for much more interesting viewing.

Note: the UK release has an attempted rape scene (Pauli on Ivanna) cut, which is a bit of a shame as it explains the family's subsequent trip to Italy.

This might be called a West German attempt to capture the success of Emanuelle. Sylvia Krystel stars in the title role also.

'70s were the time of sexy older women who were willing to experience better sex in their lives beyond what they can get within their marriage. Success of the movie "Emanuelle" sort of gave permission to bring this concept into movie making. Julia is almost a carbon copy of the format of Emanuelle if only the backdrop wasn't so exotic.

The movie captures the atmosphere of the '70s extremely well. Everyone was looking for a sexual encounter with a sexy women which was available due to extreme physical appeal of women born in the '40s.

The movie gets it right, and it's an enjoyable look at the various situation people wished they were in during that period. The movie is made very well, and is worth the watch.