40 year-old alcoholic Julia kidnaps a tycoon’s grandson to get a ransom after she got fired from her job. But unexperienced and more addicted than ever, she gets into even deeper trouble as she flees with the kid towards the Mexican frontier…
The last news we had from Erick Zonca were ten years ago on the occasion of the release of The Little Thief, a year after the acclaimed Dreamlife of Angels. His new picture comes finally on screens, after he fought for years, refusing many projects in France and in the United States. Julia reminds of Cassavetes, from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie to Gloria, but far from a remake Zonca rather uses these references as a basis to pay a tribute to this independent American cinema, which inspired itself from the French nouvelle vague. Julia explores the wild spaces of California through Yorick Le Saux’s brilliant cinematography -the latter worked a lot with François Ozon. The elegant camera captures the emotions of the characters in beautiful frames and makes us share the journey of a lost soul. To embody the heroine and give her the necessary humanity that would make us love this terrible character, Zonca had to find an outstanding actress. Tilda Swinton, who recently received an Academy Award for her part in Michael Clayton, is Julia. As strong as fragile, as seductive in the euphoria of a wild party as broken when she wakes up on the backseat of a car where she ended her night, she gives a thrilling performance in this very demanding role. Julia is both a remarkable woman portrait and a brilliant tense thriller. Scrambling references from one genre to another, Julia sets the marks for a new French cinema, which combines developed characters and pure action. As a number of French directors go to Hollywood to make films they can’t do in France, Zonca does the same trip to make there a French film (the production and the senior crew being French) and make it his own way, far from a touristy or exotic cinema.
Read Erick Zonca’s interview about Julia here.
More details about The Little Thief.