Julie & Julia

Movie
German title	Julie & Julia
Original title	Julie & Julia
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2009
length	123 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0 ; JMK 0
Rod
Director	Nora Ephron
script	Nora Ephron based ; on a novel by ; Julie Powell
production	Nora Ephron, ; Laurence Mark , ; Eric Steel , ; Amy Robinson
music	Alexandre Desplat
camera	Stephen Goldblatt
cut	Richard Marks
occupation
	Meryl Streep : Julia Child ; Amy Adams : Julie Powell ; Stanley Tucci : Paul Child, Julia's husband; Chris Messina : Eric Powell, Julie's husband; Linda Emond : Simone Beck , "Simca"; Jane Lynch : Dorothy McWilliams, Juliet's sister; Mary Lynn Rajskub : Sarah, Julie's best friend; Vanessa Ferlito : Cassie; Casey Wilson : Regina;

Julie & Julia is a 2009 comedy film directed by Nora Ephron , who also wrote the screenplay based on a book by Julie Powell . The film juxtaposes the early days of Julia Child's cooking career with Julie Powell's ambitious endeavors to cook all 524 recipes from Child's cookbook in one year. However, the real dream of both was to become a writer.

action

Julia Child came to Paris in 1949 with her husband Paul, who is the American ambassador , where she initially tried herself as a hat maker , rather out of boredom . Then she learns to cook and bake in a cooking school and becomes the partner of Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who have been working on a French cookery book for American women for some time. The three of them run a cooking school. The cookbook is rejected by the publishers and so Beck and Bertholle ask Julia to revise their book. Numerous moves follow for Julia, who accompanies her husband to various countries. Here the effects of the "communist" persecution in the McCarthy era are indicated. The cookbook, to which she added many new sections, took on ever larger dimensions and, with a length of over 700 pages, put off numerous publishers. An editor finally takes time for the manuscript, cooks up recipes and is enthusiastic, so that eight years after starting her work Julia can finally hold the printed book in her hands.

At the same time, the story of Julie is told. She is just under 30 in 2002, married, has just moved from Brooklyn to Queens and looks after people who are still suffering from the aftermath of September 11 in an open-plan office on the phone. She actually wanted to be a writer, but never managed more than half a novel. Her passion is cooking and when one of her friends starts a blog about her everyday life, she decides to write about cooking for herself. Her plan: cook all 524 recipes from Julia Childs cookbook within a year and report on them in the blog. More and more people read their blog and are enthusiastic, and the press is starting to report. At some point, the whole thing becomes too much for her husband Eric, and Julie is becoming increasingly self-centered. He leaves her in an argument, but soon returns. At the end of the year Julie, who has stylized Julia into a perfect woman in her imagination, finds out that she is not very enthusiastic about her blog and that the approach to her work is rather disrespectful. Julie is devastated at first, but then trusts the picture she has made of Julia, she finally finishes her experiment as planned. Numerous publishers have contacted us to turn their wealth of experience into a book. Finally, Julie visits the museum dedicated to Julia and leaves a packet of butter there, which in Julia's opinion is the most important ingredient in all dishes.

Origin and production

Ephron's script is based on two books: My Life in France , Child's autobiography, which she wrote with Alex Prud'homme , and the memoirs of Julie Powell. Powell started off by blogging her daily cooking experiments . In it, she described how she cooked all 524 recipes in Childs book Mastering the Art of French Cooking . She later revised the blog. "The Julie / Julia Project" was published in a book: Julie & Julia. 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Little, Brown, New York 2005). The German-language paperback edition was published in 2006 under the title Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes and 1 tiny kitchen . The two books, adapted by Ephron, were written and published between 2004 and 2006. The feature film was the first to be based on a blog.

Ephron began producing Julie & Julia in March 2008 . Meryl Streep played Julia Child and Amy Adams played Julie Powell.

publication

The official film premiere took place on July 30, 2009 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. The film was shown in US cinemas on August 7, 2009, and the film started in Germany on September 3, 2009.

criticism

On the Rotten Tomatoes website , Julie & Julia received a 75% positive rating based on 212 counted reviews. The overall consensus is that thanks to the "charismatic" portrayal of Meryl Streep, the film is a "light but quite entertaining culinary comedy". On Metacritic , 66% of the total of 34 reviews were positive.

Anke Westphal found in the Berliner Zeitung that the part of Julia Child was “a prime role ” for Meryl Streep. This was allowed to be "even more eccentric than in the film musical" Mamma Mia! "[...] the ingenious Rampensau" and "pull out all the stops funny, but also tireless resistance". In addition, the film is not just about “cooking, but just as much about female role models and feminine self-image” as well as “regardless of gender” about the question of “whether you actively encounter a crisis or are satisfied with suffering from what is. "

Juliane Primus from Tagesspiegel said the “best ingredient” in the film was Meryl Streep. She plays Julia Child , "as Julie Powell imagines: hungry for life, lively, and thanks to endless pumps, everything and everyone is outstanding - and with such a high-pitched voice that many an egg is lost by itself." However, the "leisurely" film remains "Nothing more than a growling stomach - and the amazingly old-fashioned moral that turning a pancake in the air is obviously an act of civil courage."

Inga Ehret wrote on FOCUS Online that Meryl Streep played "a gorgeous shrill Julia Child who has adapted her role model perfectly". When she “as a boyish, 1.85 meter tall TV cook lets pots and pans dance and stretches every word into other dimensions, the record Oscar-nominated actress shows how perfectly she has absorbed the facial expressions and language of America's cult cook without in to slide down a parody ”. In addition, Amy Adams could “only move in the roller corset of the pale wallflower”. Nevertheless, she also manages to "always remain lovable and authentic - as a counterpoint to the eccentric role of Julia Child."

The lexicon of international films judged: “The film does not clumsily interlink the two narrative levels, with the figures and plot parts set in the present dropping off sharply compared to the flashbacks to the nostalgic old Paris, in which Meryl Streep's comic acting is good entertainment. Otherwise, the film suffers from the rather pale figures and from the fact that it does not transfer the sensuality of culinary passions to the screen. "

Awards

Leading actress Meryl Streep received the Golden Globe Award for best leading actress in a comedy / musical in 2010 for her role , and she was also nominated for an Oscar .