| BIOGRAPHY
Film critics are quick to compare Monica Bellucci to previous
Italian beauties, but she is her own brand of sultry icon. With
roles as a topless vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula, a taciturn
war widow in Malèna (2000), a charmed courtesan in Le Pacte
des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) (2002), and a sci-fi vixen
in the Matrix sequels (2003), Bellucci has proved to be a bold
blend of earthy and ethereal, actress and star.
Born on September 30, 1968, Bellucci grew up in the small Italian
village of Citta di Castello, where her father owned a trucking
company. At 18, she enrolled at the University of Perugia with
plans to study law. To pay her tuition, Bellucci started modeling.
Two years later, she dropped out of school to relocate to Milan,
where she signed with Elite Model Management. Besides strutting
the cat walk in fashion shows, Bellucci appeared in international
advertising campaigns for designers such as Dolce & Gabbana.
With her modeling career in full swing, she began to take acting
classes and made her screen debut in the television film Vita
Coi Figli (Life With the Sons) in 1990.
After acting in several Italian features, Monica graced American
screens for the first time as one of Dracula's (Gary Oldman) brides
in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), which
also starred Keanu Reaves and Winona Ryder. She subsequently returned
to Italy to appear in the heist film I Mitici (The Heroes) (1994)
and the children's movie Palla di Neve (Snowball) (1995). As time
passed, Bellucci grew increasingly frustrated with the failure
of Italy's film industry to promote its projects abroad. She starred
opposite Ben Kingsley and Dominique Sanda in the American television
movie Joseph (1995), before looking for work in French films.
Bellucci made her French-language debut in 1996's award-winning
romance L'Appartement (The Apartment). She earned a César
nomination for her performance in the role, as well as began dating
her co-star, French actor Vincent Cassel. The couple (who married
a few years later) re-teamed onscreen immediately, portraying
comically troubled lovers in the gender-bending romance Come Mi
Vuoi (As You Want Me) (1996) and murderous bank robbers in Jan
Kounen's infamous thriller Dobermann (1997).
In 2000, sexy Bellucci returned to Hollywood to play Gene Hackman's
estranged trophy wife in Under Suspicion. The film's director,
Stephen Hopkins, had seen L'Appartement on a transatlantic flight
and requested that she star in the thriller. That same year, the
actress earned unprecedented worldwide acclaim for her performance
as the title character in Malèna. Helmed by award-winning
director Giuseppe Tornatore, the film featured Bellucci as a quiet
young bride who is left alone in a small Sicilian town when her
husband goes off to fight in World War II. Stunningly attractive,
she struggles to keep her dignity as she is spurned by the female
villagers and preyed upon by the men. Bellucci followed up Malèna's
success with another international hit, Christophe Gans' genre
hybrid Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) (2002). The
stylish cross between period piece and kung-fu flick (which also
starred Cassel) was the fourth most successful film of its year
in France. After conquering Europe, the film became an art house
hit in the States and Bellucci received a nomination for Best
Supporting Actress from the U.S. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy,
and Horror Films.
The subject of numerous fan sites and men's magazine articles,
Bellucci went on to star as the seductive Queen of the Nile in
the comic book adaptation Astérix & Obélisk:
Mission Cléopâtre. In 2001, she joined Dracula co-star
Keanu Reeves in the cast of the highly anticipated follow-ups
to The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix
Revolutions (2003). Soon after, Bruce Willis personally chose
Bellucci to play a humanitarian doctor whom he must save from
war-torn Nigeria in Tears of the Sun, director Antoine Fuqua's
follow-up to his hit Training Day (2001).
In 2004, Bellucci's momentum continued to build when she starred
as Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's self-produced
blockbuster retelling of the final 12 hours of Jesus Christ. In
the wake of that film's success, Bellucci teamed with two other
renowned directors, Terry Gilliam and Spike Lee, with roles in
The Brothers Grimm and She Hate Me, respectively.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• The Passion of The Christ (2004)
• Remember Me, My Love (2004)
• She Hate Me (2004)
• Irreversible (2003)
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
• Tears of the Sun (2003)
• The Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des loups) (2002)
• Maléna (2000)
• Under Suspicion (2000)
• Like a Fish Out of Water (1999) |
