I have just been to the movie Julie & Julia. A film based on two true stories. One is about the life of Julia Child, an American icon of cooking. And the other is about the life of Julie Powell, who writes a blog about cooking Julia Child’s recipes for 365 days. The subject is not very exciting. The film is too long and you wonder what the point of the film is. But Meryl Streep is wonderful in her role as Julia Child.
Julia Child’s story shows she had a remarkably loving relationship, a great personality, an interesting life as an expat in the 1950’s in China, France, Sweden and the US. She remained childless, which caused her much pain. And she struggled for years before she got her cookbook published and found fame.
The other part of the film follows thirty-year-old Julie (played by Amy Adams). She moves to Queens with her husband and is unhappy throughout the whole film with no clear reason. Just that she is thirty and has not ‘made’ it yet as a writer. To make her life less miserable she decides to start blogging about cooking a recipe from Julia Child’s cookbook every day for 365 days. After the 365 days of cooking the blogging Julie signs a book deal with a publisher and gets her story turned into a Hollywood movie.
This proves exactly the problem of what Julie and others of her generation have. They achieve things too easily and when fame and fortune doesn’t happen fast enough they get depressed and moan.
This films makes you feel that women in the 1950’s fought for what they wanted and had a jolly good time. However women in the noughties seem to be weak and moan about everything and have not much joy at all. And what do we do to make life better? We creep behind our laptop and blog instead of leading a real life. Are we really that sad?
What director Nora Ephron should have done was just filming the life of Julia Child. It would have made a wonderful film on its own. Surely someone could have turned her life in to great feel-good-movie without making us, the thirty-somethings, look so miserable?
Beatpolitics is created by me, Beatrijs Overdijkink. I am a writer, originally from Amsterdam, lived in London for a while and just moved to Prague. I write about political subjects big and small. Feel free to comment on anything I say. I love a good debate!
Samira Tanha | 28-Nov-09 at 1:08 pm | Permalink
Hi,
I just saw the movie yesterday. I don’t completely agree with your point of view up here. If it wasn’t for Julie Powell our generation would perhaps never know about Julia Child. As a food/ cooking/ book lover I have never come across anything on Julia Child.
Seeing the movie didn’t make me feel that women in the 50’s fought for what they wanted, it made me feel they fought because they otherwise would be overwhelmed by boredom. Nowadays there is much more pressure on women to perform, to fight and to compete. And above all, to do these things and still be seen as a woman. I’m sure everyone (men/women) feels down from time to time, however it’s about what you do to turn that around. That’s when you show your true character. Julie Powell showed character in the movie and therefore I think it gave depth to the movie and made the movie very inspirational.
I liked the double perspective of the movie, I think Julie Powell revived Julia Child and gave her another moment in the spotlight. Without it, it would be just another movie. This way you experience how one life has affected another life and that’s what makes it special.
Samira Tanha