Miss Julie

The movie opens with a young Miss Julie wandering the empty confines of her family's manor, calling to her absent mother. She walks by a babbling brook where she sees a doll stuck in a tree and snickers at the sight. The moment sets a mood of isolation and longing that frames the story.

In 1890, the manor is quiet except for Kathleen the cook, John the valet, and Miss Julie, the Baron's daughter. Kathleen and John gossip about Miss Julie and the power she wields, hinting at their complicated social dynamics. They note Julie's mood and the tension between servant and noble.

Miss Julie enters, and Kathleen steps away to tend to the suffering dog. Julie, in a mischievous mood, traps John and toys with power over him. The night grows charged with intimate tension as boundaries between class and desire are tested.

The two exchange impassioned monologues filled with lust and emotional tension, blurring lines between master and servant. The moment culminates with them ending up in John's bedroom, where their attraction erupts into a physical encounter.

Kathleen listens to their coupling from behind John's door, then returns to her own room and weeps inconsolably. Her sorrow underscores the costs of desire and the fragility of the trio's relationships.

Back with Miss Julie, John bluntly reveals he has never loved her and recalls that he once had the same dirty thoughts as other peasants. He escalates the abuse, calling her a whore and taunting her with the possibility of pregnancy, pushing Julie toward a psychological breakdown.

John orders Julie to break into her father's desk and steal all his money, promising they will use it to elope and open a hotel in Switzerland. Julie, already destabilized, agrees to the scheme as the plan threads into their grim power play.

John goes to Kathleen and makes sexual advances toward her, but she rebuffs him. She dresses him in his Sunday clothes and invites them to church, hoping forgiveness will redeem their actions. The moment exposes the pretense of morality masking their desires.

Kathleen arrives in her Sunday clothes as Julie settles her stolen money and the bird's cage; John then sadistically beheads Julie's beloved bird with a meat cleaver. Julie experiences a fresh, visceral breakdown as the act marks the collapse of their already fragile bond.

Kathleen gently explains the strength she draws from her Christian faith, while Julie mourns that she does not share that faith. The exchange deepens Julie's sense of isolation and temptation as the plan to elope remains unresolved.

John hands Miss Julie his straight razor and urges her to commit suicide, arguing that rank and consequence no longer matter. Julie hesitates, fearful of hell, but John forcefully reminds her that she has crossed a line now.

John climbs the castle stairs to deliver the Baron's boots and breakfast, while Julie walks to the brook seen in the opening moments. The film ends with Julie dead by the brook, a bag filled with stolen money around her neck and a slit wrist from John's razor.