Miss Julie

Following a scandalous broken engagement, Miss Julie forgoes the family Midsummer's Eve celebration to attend the estate's servants' ball. She aims to honor the staff and asserts her independence by stepping into their world. The decision sets a charged tone for the night, where power, desire, and ritual clash.

During the ball, Julie pulls Jean into the table and orders him to sit with beers. She humiliates him by forcing him to kiss her shoe in front of the other guests. The moment starkly tests the lines of class and control between master and servant.

Outside, Julie makes advances on Jean and they share a dangerous, intimate moment. A servant's hand, hidden behind a sculpture, witnesses the encounter in shock. The witness's later report threatens to expose them to the entire estate.

Julie and Jean realize the scandal that will erupt if they are seen together and scramble to escape and hide. They move through the grounds, trying to vanish from prying eyes as the ball continues inside. The hand's testimony has already begun to spread, setting a grim countdown.

The couple discusses fleeing the estate, with Jean proposing a train to Italy where they could run a hotel using Julie's supposed investment. Julie admits she has no money of her own to fuel the plan. Jean remains bluntly pragmatic about danger and the futility of dying for love.

Jean presses Julie for truth, and she recounts her girlhood. Her mother Berta, a commoner who believed in women's rights, married Count Carl, and Julie was dressed in boys' clothes as a child. The Countess sets fire to their home, and the Count later attempted suicide by firearm. The harsh family history frames Julie as the product of turmoil and rebellion.

On hearing her tale, Jean proclaims a sense of superior heritage, arguing that Julie is tainted by her arsonist lineage. He treats their bond as precarious, highlighting the gulf between their stations. This revelation hardens his stance and dimishes any lingering tenderness.

Before leaving, Jean spots Julie's finch Serine and refuses to take the birdcage. Julie declares she would rather Serine die than be left behind. In a brutal moment, Jean breaks the bird's neck, and Julie curses the day she was born.

As they prepare to depart, Julie confronts Jean's unsettling calm and his apparent disregard for the Count's discovery. She questions whether he would die for her, and their trust collapses under the weight of practicality and fear. The power shift between them deepens the tragedy.

The Count returns and finds Julie dead, having killed herself with a razor beneath the portrait of the Countess. The discovery caps the night with an irreversible catastrophe for both Julie and Jean. The estate is left to absorb the consequences of their forbidden liaison.

The hidden witness's report and subsequent gossip begin to ripple through the estate, sealing the social fate of all involved. The scandal threatens to fracture family honor and servants' loyalties alike. The night lingers as rumors and music fade.

The events conclude with a sense that desire and class conflict remain inseparable in the estate's world. Julie's choices and Jean's pragmatism reveal the moral complexities of love under rigid societal rules. The tragedy leaves survivors to confront the consequences and pay the price of breaking norms.