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Most people don't realize that there are 2 versions of this movie

posted 14 years ago by TVmovieViewer
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The movie was originally shot on videotape. This is the version that was released on vhs, and the version that many people say "looks like a soap opera".

But there was also a version that was later transferred to film, to make it look like any ordinary movie. This is the version that they used to air on TV when it would air on ABC as the "Late Movie" in the 1990s, and when it used to air on the E! channel.

I prefer the film version (because it's less distracting), but I'd be happy if either version was released on dvd.

[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

I vaguely recall a quiet uproar when this film came out. So when it first played in theaters, did it have the "soap opera look" even though it had to have been transferred from videotape to film? Or did theaters that were so equipped just show the videotape on the screen?

I'm kind of confused on how they can correct the videotape look when they transfer it to film. I'd appreciate any answers you have.

[–] TVmovieViewer 14 years ago

Hi WarpedRecord,

I honestly don't know the proceedure they used to transfer the movie from videotape to film. All I know is that from around 1992-1999, They frequently aired this movie on the Late Movie on ABC, and on the E! channel, and I'd always watch it (since I'm a Kathleen Turner fan.) I'd even taped one of the TV airings. Whenever I'd read online comments about how "weird" the movie looked, and how it "looked like a soap opera", I was confused, since it just looked like any ordinary movie when it aired on TV.

Then, around the year 2000, I decided to buy the vhs because I was curious to see what scenes had been deleted for the TV airings and I was absolutely SHOCKED by how the movie looked! It really did look like a soap opera, and I finally understood what everyone was complaining about.

For whatever reason, when the movie was released on vhs, the decided to put the original videotape version on the tape, and not the version that had been transferred to film, and as a result, the movie suffers dramatically. It's no longer as deep and haunting. It just looks cheap.

I really wish they'd air in on TV again so I could record the film version (which makes it a much more powerful, effective movie.)

[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

Hello, ChristinaCrawford:

Thanks very much for the reply. I've had the VHS of this film in my collection for years, and I finally decided to watch it. Unfortunately, it's the soap operatic style – very static and bland. It almost feels like the test or audition footage you see as DVD bonus features these days.

Could this have been filmed as a "Masterpiece Theatre" production or somesuch initially? It definitely has a TV feel. For most of this, I was puzzled why it was rated R, but the nude scene toward the end (which seemed out of sync with the rest of the film) answered that question.

It's strange that something shot on video should look so "wrong" on VHS, but I guess I'm just accused to film stock. I've seen films shot on VHS in the theater, and they just look "blurry," not ultra-sharp like this.

It could have been experimental, but it just falls flat in my opinion. I don't know if you've seen Lars von Trier's "Dogville," but that film completely takes place on a stage, with "markers" for props like houses and trees, but once I got past the staginess of it, I was absorbed in the story. In the case of "Julia and Julia," I found the format a huge distraction.

Beyond that, what did you make of the story? My take on it is that Julia had lost her mind when her husband died, and she was unable to function in the present without holding on to the relationship she was still trying to maintain with her dead husband. It's an interesting premise, but I just found the presentation flat here. I'm not sure that the film stock would have helped much, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt.

[–] TVmovieViewer 14 years ago

Hi WarpedRecord,
The ending is very much open to interpretation. When I originally watched it on TV, I thought that she'd passed through some sort of other dimension (like the "Twilight Zone"), and the idea that she just went psychotic and imagined it all never occured to me untill I read other people's comments.

Like I said before, watching it on film makes a huge difference. The movie really seems so much more meaningful, and I remember thinking about the movie for a while after I watched it.

Realeasing the videotape version on VHS is really a huge dis-service to both the film-makers and to the audience. You just can't take the movie that seriously when it feels like you're watching Kathleen Turner guest starring on a special episode of "One Life to Life" in Italy.

[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

Thanks for your thoughts, Christina. I agree that releasing the videotaped version does a great injustice to this film. I would think that this would have occurred to the crew when watching the dailies. It was probably an affectation, but it just doesn't work.