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Originally posted by Johnny Stew
One particularly interesting thing about "Imperial Hotel," is that Stevie seems to have once again drawn some level of inspiration from the 1977 movie 'Julia'... which also happens to have provided muse for both "Rock A Little (Go Ahead Lily)," and "Julia." The movie (which is a true story, yet somewhat embellished) depicts playwright Lillian Hellman's remembrances of her relationship with her lifelong friend, Julia, who is involved in an underground anti-fascist movement in Vienna, in the late '30s.
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It seems odd that Stevie has found so much inspiration in Hellman's memoirs. Hellman fabricated a lot of these allegedly true stories, including Julia's very identity. In fact, the actual model for Julia, a woman named Gardiner, told the world after "Pentimento" was published that she (Gardiner) never even knew Hellman. Hellman actually cooked up what is essentially a fabrication & called it a memoir. The great Mary McCarthy called Hellman a liar & got sued for it; Hellman could be petty & vindictive & just plain cruel. It's odd to think of Stevie comparing her relationship with Robin to that of Hellman & "Julia" when the former is a real friendship & the latter just an elaborate hoax.
Hellman wrote a fantastic play called "The Little Foxes" that was filmed in the early '40s with Bette Davis, Carl Benton Reid, Charles Dingle & Patricia Collinge. It has some of the best ensemble work in American movies of the time.