FILM TITLE: Being Julia Programme: Viacom Galas Director: István Szabó Country: Canada/United Kingdom/Hungary Year: 2004 Language: English Time: 105 minutes Film Types: Colour/35mm SCREENING TIMES: Thursday, September 09 07:15 PM RYERSON Thursday, September 09 08:00 PM ROY THOMSON HALL Saturday, September 11 11:15 AM CUMBERLAND 1 Sunday, September 12 02:00 PM CUMBERLAND 1 Production Company: Serendipity Point Films Producer: Robert Lantos Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, based on the novella "Theatre" by W. Somerset Maugham Cinematography: Lajos Koltai Editor: Susan Shipton Production Designer: Luciana Arrighi Sound: Simon Kaye, Daniel Pellerin Music: Mychael Danna Principal Cast: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood, Shaun Evans, Lucy Punch, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson, Tom Sturridge, Maury Chaykin, Sheila McCarthy, Rosemary Harris, Michael Gambon Being Julia marks an exciting return to the Festival for the team of Canadian producer Robert Lantos and award-winning director István Szabó, following their collaboration on the 1999 epic Sunshine. Here, they turn to W. Somerset Maugham’s novella “Theatre,” a droll look at the London stage of the thirties. The film features the spectacular talents of Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons, with marvellous support from Canadian favourites Bruce Greenwood, Sheila McCarthy and Maury Chaykin. Stage legend Julia Lambert (Bening) is rapidly becoming a woman “of a certain age” and faces the prospect of being relegated to supporting parts that suit her waning star status. Appropriately, Julia does what any diva would: she throws a tantrum, moves her entourage to the country and takes a lover half her age – the pretty, unscrupulous American Tom Fennell (Shaun Evans). When Julia discovers Tom is more gold digger than lovestruck suitor – and that she must compete for him with two-bit starlet Avie Crichton (Lucy Punch) – hell hath no fury. She gathers her razor-sharp wits about her and exacts her revenge in the manner only a great actress can. Her pride restored, she finds fresh inspiration in her new-found, mature self-confidence.  Bening, luminous throughout, carries the considerable weight of her role as though it were as light as a feather boa. She winks at Bette Davis’s canonical turn in All About Eve, but Bening’s Julia is all her own. As actor-turned-producer Michael, Julia’s terribly British husband, Irons is hilariously deadpan even as he exudes the warmth of the man’s enduring affection for his wife. Greenwood is charming as Julia’s perennial bachelor friend and Chaykin delivers a terrifically funny performance as a drunken playwright. Director Szabó’s precision is well in evidence here – he defies the conventional expectations of the period drama and is careful never to allow the film’s acerbic wit to outweigh its joyful celebration of Julia’s achievements. The result is a magnificent, effervescent triumph.  István Szabó was born and educated in Budapest, where he graduated from the Academy of Drama and Film. His films have won more than sixty international awards, including the Academy Award® for best foreign film for Mephisto (81). Seven of his films have appeared at the Festival: Father (66), Colonel Redl (85), Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe (92), Sunshine (99), Taking Sides (01), a segment of Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (02) and Being Julia (04). His other films include Age of Illusions (64), Love Film (70), Budapest Tales (76), Confidence (79), Hanussen (88), Meeting Venus (91), Offenbach’s Secret (96) and Steadying the Boat (96). Associated with European Film Promotion, an initiative supported by the European Union’s MEDIA Programme. This film is rated 18A.