Being Julia and Closer

Two wonderful movies for a single night is a luxury. After the humous and cheerful comedy, Being Julia, the tail-heavy drama Closer becomes even harder to take. Being Julia is a 2004 film directed by István Szabó, inspired by W. Somerset Maugham's novel Theatre. Set in the world of the London stage in the late 1930s, reigning diva Julia Lambert's success and fame grow suddenly wearisome. She falls in love with a young American, Tom Fennel, and begins a passionate affair. When she realises that Tom is just a young social climber whose real passion is ambitious young starlet Avice Crichton, Julia begins to plot a delightful revenge. Annette Bening gave Julia a charming character and overwhelmingly loveable. The plot of the film is carefully laid out and the most interesting part of the film is Julia's communication with her dead mentor. The mentor appears every time she is emotionally struggled, and tells her how to transform her emotion into dramatical power on the stage. At the end of the movie, Julia goes to the resturant alone after the successful opening night for her new play. She drinks her beer and gazes into her past, present and future. The motionless position of her body and emotionless face of hers make such a deep imprint that you might forget everything about the movie, but not her face. Closer is adopted from a play written by Patrick Marber. The film is a modern tragedic version of Mozart's opera Così fan tutte; the film features that music and the characters attend a performance of the opera. Also, the music of Irish folk singer Damien Rice is featured in the film, most notably the song, "The Blower's Daughter", whose lyrics drew many parallels with the themes present in the film. Side point: The band Panic! At the Disco's 2005 debut album included songs called "Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" and "But it's Better if You Do", a direct reference to a line spoken by Natalie Portman's character. ("Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but it's better if you do.")