Julia

Julia (1977) is an American drama directed by Fred Zinnemann that you can watch online on iFILM. Jane Fonda plays playwright Lillian Hellman; Vanessa Redgrave is Julia, her oldest friend. Jason Robards appears as Dashiell Hammett, and a very early Meryl Streep takes a supporting role. The film won three Academy Awards.

The two women grew up close, then went separate ways. Lillian is writing her first plays in New York. Julia went to Europe, ended up in Vienna and Berlin as fascism was taking hold, and joined an underground resistance network. Word eventually reaches Lillian: Julia's people need a courier to carry money into Nazi Germany in 1937. No training. No backup plan.

Zinnemann built the tension from ordinary things — a compartment on a train, a hat left untouched, a rendezvous that may or may not happen. The film is adapted from Lillian Hellman's memoir Pentimento. Watch Julia (1977) online on iFILM.