Admittedly, this self-proclaimed film buff does not have as worldly a knowledge of cinema as one should have when using the signifier, “self-proclaimed film buff.” Though this lack of in-depth knowledge pertains more to foreign and world cinema, I’ll ask that cinephiles hold their breath when reading the following omission, that I cannot recall ever having seen a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. This is relevant, because, the 1888-penned naturalistic play by August Strindberg, Miss Julie (or in its native Swedish tongue, Fröken Julie), is now seeing a big-screen adaptation, written and directed by Bergman’s former muse of eleven films, Liv Ullman. The fact that I knew only this about the writer/director before seeing the film (starring Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain as the titular character) extends to show further proof of my ignorance- a more proper introduction of Ms. Ullmann should shy away from focusing on her being “Bergman’s long-time on-again, off-again lover and artistic companion,” and rather on her accomplishments as an actress (nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for 1978’s The Emigrants) and director (nominated for Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or for 2011’s Faithless). Uncovering this knowledge, I prepare myself for an even more rich conversation that I am to have over the phone on one rainy weekday morning. I informally begin by asking her where at she is currently talking to me from, geographically (for context reasons, rather than obtrusive geo-locating reasons). She casually responds, in her warm Norwegian accent, that she won’t be telling me. While I make light of the first communication I have with her, it simultaneously frames the rest of our conversation: she seems wholly disinterested in modernity and its new-found technological offerings (as much as a phone interview is ‘technological’), and that some things should remain a mystery, such as her appreciation for the time gone-by of the experience of watching a film at the cinema, which she intends to restore in her latest period piece drama. Oh, yeah- and as mysteries go, she also happens to compare her newest film to what this country can learn about dealing with the Ebola crisis.

 

DO YOU IMAGINE WHAT THE EXPERIENCE OF WATCHING A FILM WILL BE LIKE AS YOU ARE MAKING THE FILM?

Well I’m, you know, I’m so old fashioned, and from where I come, in this mysterious place where I am, I look at it as something to be shown in a theater, you know, where the lights slowly go down, and then it becomes dark, and then the curtain goes up, and there you are. And that’s why this movie was made as a film, it’s not digital, and there was a lot of fighting, but I had it in my contract so they couldn’t take it away, and they tried but, no way, so it is filmed. And so, what you see, the visions and so are so much more beautiful the way I see it because it’s made of film and not digital.

So I believe it is for people to sit there and maybe like you with a friend, or maybe other people not knowing each other in the dark, and then they are experiencing, people up there experiencing so much of the same as they may go through, and recognize, and see maybe it’s not only from (the year) 1890, but it could be today also. And these are thoughts I have, and these are feelings that I have, that’s how I feel I would like my movies to be seen.

And when you talk about the experiences, to be able to get three such actors, and they all combine the best of theater and film, because they all know theater very well, where you can really show them in big rooms, and the big woods, and then you can go very, very close to them and to their face, and really show what they’re thinking. And so, you can only do that with great actors. And I really feel what they’re doing is something incredible, the three of them, incredible.

I wish this was a big block…what is the…

BLOCKBUSTER.

Blockbuster! So that people would see these performances because I think what they are doing is Oscar-nomination worthy. I’ve seen Jessica in a couple of movies this year, and this one would push her, be Oscar-worthy for me. So I agree, I think you said that you loved the performances, and I do too. I’m in awe of what they did.

BEING THAT THE FILM IS ADAPTED FROM THE STAGE PLAY (OF THE SAME NAME), HOW DID YOU APPROACH THIS- AS A STAGE PLAY OR A FILM, OR BOTH?

Well you see for me, cause sometimes movies can be like stage plays- you can have the best of the stage that, like you also described, you know, the big woods, the big house and everything, you can show everything which are around them and where they are smaller, but they are there, they are living, and then you film, and you go close, close, close, with the camera, and you see their face, and their mouth, and everything they are thinking which you cannot show on stage.

I really like the combination of that. I love to show Miss Julie, she’s sitting in a chair…but you see it’s in this big kitchen, and there’s a door behind her, and the way she’s sitting erect in this strange chair, and she’s head of the whole house, and then you see her commanding a servant and his territory, and his kitchen, and he has to walk back and forth and follow his commands, inside being so angry, but knowing he cannot protest, knowing he can do nothing, but his whole body is stiff and awkward and angry, but he cannot be like…actually many people play that part, they are big macho men, but the way Colin does it, stiff and erect and angry, like a little boy that is not allowed to play, and has to do like mama says, I love the combination of theater and movies.

And since it is a film, and you are using real film, you can do this.

DID ANY OF THE ACTORS HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THEATER BEFORE THIS FILM?

Well, a lot of film actors wouldn’t be able to be on the stage, because it’s a different media, and these actors, they would all be really good on stage because they know what stage is, but they are not acting as if they are on stage, but they would know more than all film actors how to be able to move around a big room. You can see film actors that you know, are good, and even same as some, and they have costumes, you know, from another time? And they are supposed to walk through big rooms, and you can see, they don’t know how to walk in big costumes and do things like that. Stage actors know that. With these actors, yes, they can walk distances and they can sit in a close-up, because they know both the things.

And I actually didn’t know that about Colin, because I didn’t know if he had done theater before. One rehearsal time with him, and he can go on whatever stage he wants and do what he wants to do.

THIS PLAY HAS BEEN ADAPTED MANY TIMES, WHAT WERE YOU DRAWN TO ADAPTING TO BRING TO THE STAGE WITH YOUR OWN VISION?

I want, it’s always difficult to be man and woman, and for us to understand each other, and on a deeper level. And I wanted to show between these two where it’s not only that they are man and woman, but they are also from different classes, and all of us also want to be seen and understood, and listened to. And for all these three reasons, I wanted to show a life of a woman, and the life of a man, meeting each other, failing completely to connect and exist for each other, although they are saying so many things that would be great and wonderful for the other person to hear, because she cannot hear because she is tormented by her own conflicting impulses- she cannot accommodate herself to another man, and he’s stopped by his class. He wants, I think he really was in love with her when he was a child and I don’t think it was a lie, although he tells her after it was a lie. The class is in the way all the time, that she’s from an upper class, that he doesn’t hear what she’s saying, he’s just hearing what he thinks belongs to his class when confronted by a woman from the other class. It’s difficult for a man and a woman, and it’s more difficult when they are from different classes.

And I think that goes today too, it maybe goes even more today, because we are scared, from where we feel we do not belong. Look at the Ebola, what happened with that, people suddenly say, “we don’t want any of them to come to our country,” we don’t look for love, we don’t look for compassion, we just don’t want them on our doorstep, and if somebody wants to go over there and heal them, please don’t come back, because we are scared to what doesn’t belong to us, and that is also what this play is about.

WHERE DO YOU SEE A FILM LIKE MISS JULIE STANDING AMONGST ALL OF THE MORE MODERN FILMS OF TODAY?

Well, I think that it is sad that we are coming to a time where these movies will be more and more seldom, but they still are made, wonderful movies, I’ve seen some also from this year, where we start to think about other things that may seem so far away from this, just as I talked about Ebola, where your thoughts start to wonder, and it is part of the movie, but it’s so far from the movie. It’s sad that movies are only to entertain and get thrills and violence and horror. That’s sad. We are losing what it means to be human beings in movies.

Miss Julie is in theaters now.