Miss Julie (1951)

 Alf Sjoberg's "Miss Julie"

A film that won the Grand Prix at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, Alf Sjoberg's "Miss Julie" is more than just a film about a forbidden romance. It's constant shifts in emotion and tone make for something that is unsettling or destructive within the confines of its themes. Based on the 1888 play of the same name by August Strindberg, "Miss Julie" is an intentionally unruly piece of work that froths with unrest and debauchery. 

"Miss Julie" centers on Miss Julie, the daughter of a Count Carl, as she forgoes the family's Midsummer's Eve celebration to "honour" the servants' ball with her presence. She becomes attracted to one of the servants, Jean, whom confesses that he was attracted to her as a boy. The two contemplate escaping the estate, however their drunken discussions ultimately lead to various forms of power plays between the two. 

I think the main thing to point out about Sjoberg's film is that all of the characters feel utterly trapped by the social dynamics they were born into. Even Julie, who recounts to Jean, how she was used as a philosophical battle between her mother and father. Her mother, a proto-feminist, used Julie as a weapon against patriarchal structures. She would dress Julie is boy's clothing and prohibited anything deemed 'feminine,' as a feminine role denoted a lower social class than a masculine one. Julie's father wanted her raised within the constructs of the established order. Julie, now, behaves in this paradoxical way, as she has a rebellious streak in her that echoes her now deceased mother and still confines herself to the existence laid out for her by her father. Jean, on the other hand, desperately desires to move up the economic ladder and his attraction to Julie symbolizes that. 

Because of the Midsummer celebrations, all of the servants (and Julie) are engaging in drunken revelry. Their social positions have been momentarily arrested and their innermost desires have come to the forefront in a debauched manner. Even Julie is behaving erratically, drunken hellbent on expressing herself in ways she has not done before. The Midsummer's Eve provides an opportunity for these cast of characters to disavow their status momentarily and be 'free' of these constraints. It is important to note that the film begins with an opening shot of a caged bird, which visually denotes the symbol state we find Julie and her servants in. They are all trapped by their social identities and the expectations laid upon them. These expectations cause much internal strife, which is finally brought out into the open by this day of drunken debauchery. 

It is very disorienting to witness Julie and Jean play their lustful power games with each other, each creating scenarios and circumstances for which they can get the upper authority and moral superiority against the other. Julie uses her economic and class status against Jean, while Jean uses his sex over Julie and even uses her mother's private life as a weapon to degrade her and gain the upper hand. This constant back and forth of power dynamics create an uneasy and disorienting tone that never truly allows the viewer to feel a sense of established emotional coherence. It makes the idea of power seem malleable and feeble, able to bend to any conceived will. This makes the whole structure seem that much more feeble, and thus the ending's ultimate destruction of the estate is a visual metaphor for the necessity to burn it all to the ground.

With these themes, "Miss Julie" becomes a radical film that transfixes itself on ideas involving class, sex, and power. It's notions about power dynamics and the social structures we are all ultimately trapped create a timeless thematic story that is invariably relevant to any time period.