After Miss Julie (1995)

• 71%
• 1995
• Drama
• Romance
• TV Movie
• Patrick Marber
• Geraldine Somerville
• Phil Daniels
• Kathy Burke

After Miss Julie is an adaptation of the 1888 play Miss Julie by August Strindberg. The narrative takes place on the night of July 26 1945, after the British Labour Party's landslide defeat of the Conservatives (led by Winston Churchill). The atmosphere is lively, and the action takes place on a property owned by Miss Julie's rich father. Christine (Kathy Burke) and John (Phil Daniels) work for Miss Julie's father and are planning on getting married. Miss Julie (played by Geraldine Somerville) complicates this when she, slightly drunk from celebrating, begins to flirt with John. Christine is aware of this, but is so tired from working that she goes to bed.Once Christine is gone, John and Miss Julie begin talking about the past, flirting with each other all the while. John admits that he has always "loved" her, and Miss Julie responds to that sexually. They sleep together, and in the early morning Christine walks in on them in John's room. She leaves, shocked by it.The next morning Miss Julie is panicking about sleeping with one of her father's employee's. She talks with John and he says that he had seduced her and did not really love her. Miss Julie, ashamed that he took her virginity, plans to leave.Christine confronts John and Miss Julie begins to seem suicidal. The open ending leaves their fates up to the audience, with Christine planning to go to church, Miss Julie leaving for the barn with a razor and John receiving orders from Miss Julie's father.