"The traits of sadism and masochism inherent inScandinavian art are accentuated by Sjöberg's interpretation of a play thatwas wrung from its author's disastrous encounter with Siri von Essen-a countesswhile Strindberg was a servant girl's son. The brief love of Julie, the lady ofthe manor, and Jean, her father's footman, constitutes a fierce attack on a classsystem now supplanted by modern Swedish society. Sjöberg preserves theunbroken narrative flow of the play and also gives it an extra dimension bydescribing Julie's childhood (although this tends to release the emotions that onthe stage are restricted to the sprawling kitchen set). The contrast between thecount and his harridan of a wife helps to account for the uneasy blend ofhaughtiness and regret that fills the mature Julie. At certain moments,characters from different generations are seen in the same shot, so that contactwith contemporary reality is never lost.... Humiliation and ambition, self-pityand self-loathing, pervade the film in equal measures. There is a furtiveeroticism about the affair to which Sjöberg gives plastic form in suchincidents as the quarrel between Julie and her fiancé, or the barn dance,where the contagious rhythm of the music matches the whirl of movement in thepicture.... Because he so transcends the stage, Sjöberg reaches the peak ofhis career with this angry, compulsive study of sexual frustration." PeterCowie