‘Julie Keeps Quiet’ Review: Personal Agency Examined through a Sobering Tennis Drama
Film Movement
There can be something remarkably isolating about the relationship between an individual and their life passion. Whether that interest is a form of artistry, science, or sport, the commitment required to unlock the desired success can often manifest into an internalized agony that feels like it cannot be understood outside the person seeking it, making for a lonesome reality faced by many who have dedicated their lives to what they love. For his feature directorial debut, Julie Keeps Quiet, Leonardo Van Dijl addresses these complex notions through the lens of a teenage tennis player on the rise whose life takes a tailspin when her favorite coach becomes embroiled in controversy.
The titular Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) is a fifteen-year-old rising star in the youth tennis world who is eyeing her chances of training with the Belgian Tennis Federation. From the moment Julie wakes up in the morning, her life is devoted to her sport: intensive workouts, practice sessions on the court, tending to a healing shoulder injury, only begrudgingly fitting in time for her school studies. One day, arriving at the tennis academy where she trains, Jeremy, the head coach, is nowhere to be found, much to Julie's disappointment and the other students' confusion. When Julie readies for bed that evening, she receives a phone call from Jeremy. Something seems amiss.
The academy's students soon learn that a former notable trainee, Aline, has committed suicide. Inquiries reveal that the nature of her relationship with Jeremy as her coach has seemingly contributed to Aline taking her own life. The academy suspends Jeremy while the investigations ensue, with management taking steps to interview every student about their personal experiences with the lead coach. It is common knowledge on the courts that Julie was Jeremy's favorite pupil, the one whose talent he most believed in after Aline's ascent to higher ranks in the tennis world; in one meeting, another player comments, "You're "his" Julie." The probing into Aline's death continues, but Julie remains reluctant to share anything incriminating about Jeremy with anyone around her. Julie becomes frustrated by her new training routine without Jeremy, and her grades at school begin to suffer as her reality is thrown into confusion.
Julie's recurring evening phone calls with Jeremy never cease; he persists in grooming her: directing her training and soothing her anxieties with a subtly unsettling flare that crosses the line of teacher-student decorum. Still reticent to disclose any information to her close circle, Julie meets up with Jeremy to seek answers for herself. Face-to-face with Julie for the only time in the film, Jeremy (Laurent Caron) dismisses his involvement in Aline's death, disregarding her skill and blaming her own instabilities. Julie realizes he will never give up the explanations she pursues. Caught between a triangulation of her tennis aspirations, Jeremy's influence, and the increasing pressure of the investigation, Julie begins to recognize the powerful command of both her silence and testimony.
Film Movement
Produced by the likes of tennis icon Naomi Osaka and leading Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne brothers, Julie Keeps Quiet serves as a powerfully restrained and emotionally resounding debut from Van Dijl, who introduced the movie to the world as part of Cannes Critics' Week in 2024. Contrasting big-budget films that deal with comparable subject matter within the post #MeToo cinematic landscape, such as Bombshell or She Said, Julie Keeps Quiet works within a more contemplative, less ostentatious register. This process allows the film's focus to remain faithful to the interiority of experiences similar to Julie’s.
In casting the movie, Van Dijl employs several non-professional first-time actors, contributing significantly to its overall grounding in reality. Searching for a star with real-life tennis experience, the director found Van den Broeck, whose on-screen stoicism works overtime to influence Julie's impact as a character caught between her dedicated passion and the unseen uncertainty that threatens her future goals. Van den Broeck earnestly harnesses the conflicted isolation of her character more so through expression and demeanor, remaining a woman of few words as she battles an inner struggle that gradually unveils itself with the film’s progression.
The visual language of Julie Keeps Quiet could not be farther from the sexy freneticism of Challengers, the most recent illustration of the tennis world on the silver screen. In collaboration with director of photography Nicolas Karakatsanis (Cruella, I, Tonya), Van den Broeck hones in on a rather austere look for the film, reflecting Julie’s headspace and the offense that has led it to such a grim standing. The tennis itself is portrayed with little joy, exhibited in grey, drab indoor courts under harsh fluorescent lighting. In an effective nod to Julie’s sequestration from those around her, her character is often captured alone in the frame, a solitary figure against an immense backdrop of lonely tennis courts or darkened suburban streets.
Film Movement
Julie Keeps Quiet exists within a specifically post-COVID, post-woke, modern world, which makes its conditions of the abuses and characters at the center of its narrative all the more intriguing and crucial to depict onscreen. Unlike the experiences of women in the past –– whose voices and perspectives were muffled under different circumstances –– Julie has the aid of concerned parents and friends and supportive professional resources at the tennis club at her disposal. Yet, despite this backing, Julie still faces wrongdoing by structures of power that manipulate her. Through these misconducts, her character is changed in only a way that she can understand, and the film allows her the vital space to come to terms with her circumstances on her own time, dispelling hypotheses of what the right or wrong thing is to do in such difficult situations.
4/5
2024 | 97 min| Color | Dutch, French with English subtitles
‘Julie Keeps Quiet’ begins its U.S. theatrical release on Friday, March 28. Click here to find showtimes near you.