Julia and Julia

[Updated: May 15,1999]

Sting plays the photographer Daniel, Kathleen Turner’s obsessive paramour in the surreal love triangle that is Julia and Julia (1987). Director Peter Del Monte’s Italian film features Turner in the title role(s): "real-life" Julia, a lonely American widow in Trieste, mourning the wedding-day death of her Italian husband, Paolo (Gabriel Byrne); and delusional Julia, who creates a fantastic parallel existence in which she still lives with Paolo (and the young son they had dreamed of having), while also engaging in an affair with Daniel. If you thought Dune was confusing, just wait until Julia and Julia’s two worlds intersect and collide ...

Although one would assume that a chance encounter with Sting would be the ideal setup for a woman as badly in need of Jungian therapy as Julia is, think again. Granted, Julia and Daniel’s initial trysts are among the most passionate lovemaking scenes of Sting’s movie career, Sting’s Daniel proves to be (surprise!) quite evil. Rest assured; as with many of Sting’s movie characters, Daniel gets his just deserts in the end.

The opening film at the prestigious Venice Film Festival in 1987, Julia and Julia not only was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (a former cinematographer for the legendary director Federico Fellini), but also preserved itself a footnote in cinematic history as the first feature film shot in high-definition television (HDTV).

Cinecom International (Italy)

R

Color

97 minutes

Directed by: Peter Del Monte

Produced by: Francesco Pinto

Gaetano Stucchi

Written by: Peter Del Monte

Silvio Napolitano

Sandro Petraglia

Cast:

Also: