Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave continued their streak of formidable roles with "Julia". Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) was childhood friends with affluent Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). Julia has since abandoned her wealth and devoted her life to fighting Fascism. She is currently helping the resistance movements in Europe. Lillian decides to bring some American currency to help Julia in her struggles. While in Europe, she can certainly see the imprint of Nazism.

This movie does a masterful job not only showing the takeover by the Nazis, but it also puts some other things in perspective. Since I saw it a few days before the US invaded Iraq, I got the feeling of a similarity in that way. Maybe the fact that someone in my dormitory was playing a somber song on the piano (it may have been the "Schindler's List" theme music) also contributed to that. But either way, the perfect direction, script, cinematography, and performances by Fonda and Redgrave, plus Jason Robards Jr as Dashiell Hammett and Maximilian Schell as Julia's friend Johann, make this a perfect movie.

The story of Julia is taken from Pentimento the second of three volumes of memoirs by American playwright Lillian Hellman. Hellman who was still alive at the time this film was made surely must have been flattered by what Jane Fonda and the rest of the cast did with an intimate and painful portion of her life.

Lillian Hellman was a radical and unorthodox character in her life and times. She was the first major American writer to bring a lesbian theme to the stage in The Children's Hour. What she gives us in Julia is a look at her life and how she was able to create the characters of Karen and Martha the schoolteachers from The Children's Hour.

In this story Karen and Martha are Jane Fonda as Lillian Hellman and Vanessa Redgrave as her most intimate friend Julia. Both are Jewish, but Redgrave is British and Hellman is American. Their destinies seeming to be fated for togetherness are driven apart as Julia decides to go to university in Vienna to study under Sigmund Freud.

But while Hellman struggles to create a play under the tutelage of lover and mentor Dashiell Hammett as played by Jason Robards, Jr., Julia gets herself involved in the anti-fascist activities in an Austria already preparing for Anschluss. While Hellman is visiting Julia sustains some very serious injuries during a Nazi inspired riot.

As the story continues Hellman meets great acclaim with her first major hit which turns out to be The Children's Hour, but her communications from Julia become more and more infrequent and somewhat bizarre. Then she's asked on another trip to smuggle money into the Third Reich to aid Julia and others fleeing Hitler's tyranny.

Director Fred Zinneman who was also a refugee from the Anschluss of Austria knew his subject well. He successfully transfers his memories and visions of a frightened people with good reason to be frightened. Fonda's American experience doesn't prepare her for this, but as Hellman she adapts to the environment well for her survival. Her budding celebrity no doubt helps insure her survival.

But the one you will remember is Vanessa Redgrave who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Julia. The last scene of her and Fonda together at a Berlin train stop café is no doubt what won her the Oscar. It will haunt you long after you've seen the film.

Julia won two other Oscars, one for Best Screenplay adapted from another source and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards, Jr. as Dashiell Hammett. Sharing sex, literature, and politics wasn't enough for the Hammett/Hellman duo, Robards as Hammett knows well that he runs second as will anyone else in Fonda's life to her lost Julia. But he's secure enough to realize it and enjoy what he has.

Maximilian Schell was also up for Best Supporting Actor in a small, but vital role as an anti-Nazi German who gives cryptic guiding instructions to Fonda on her last visit to Julia. It's through him that the fright of the opposition is seen mostly. Meryl Streep made her screen debut as an upper class snob of a friend that Fonda has and Strepp has a brother in John Glover. Glover specializes in portrayals of truly hateful people on the big and small screen. He confesses a breaking a major taboo to Fonda while drunk and then snickers at her relationship with Redgrave. Jane handles him appropriately.

Julia was also up for a flock of other Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director for Fred Zinneman and Best Actress for Jane Fonda. It's a beautiful and haunting film about Lillian Hellman writing from the heart about a lost love.

It's 1934. Lillian (Jane Fonda) is struggling to write her play while living with her mentor lover Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards). It's a fiery relationship but her closest relationship is Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). They were brought up together in Julia's grandparents' palatial mansion. Julia became a social activist battling the rising tide of fascism in Europe. She was beaten in Vienna, hospitalized, and escaped. Lillian returns from Vienna to write a celebrated play. She visits Paris where Lillian sends Johann (Maximilian Schell) to meet her. Despite her Jewish background, she is recruited to bring Julia's money to Berlin to bribe for her colleague's freedom.

These are great actresses. The movie spends too much time with Lillian's relationship to Dashiell and her writer's block. They end up adding very little to what is truly needed for this story. This movie needs to develop her relationship with Julia. Julia is the titular character and the more fascinating one. Meryl Streep has an early minor role but it's really insignificant. It takes awhile for the movie to get interesting. It's a slow start and the women don't get consistent time together until late in the movie.