FRANCE: French and Italian actresses Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci provide a double dose of glamour at the Cannes film festival where they feature in Marina De Van's 'Don't Look Back'
Record ID:
763031
FRANCE: French and Italian actresses Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci provide a double dose of glamour at the Cannes film festival where they feature in Marina De Van's 'Don't Look Back'
- Title: FRANCE: French and Italian actresses Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci provide a double dose of glamour at the Cannes film festival where they feature in Marina De Van's 'Don't Look Back'
- Date: 19th May 2009
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH ACTRESS SOPHIE MARCEAU SAYING: "Monica is a very beautiful person, I am not making that up. In general I like observing people, but I am even more curious about people who have taken a similar path, she also started working at a young age, and I like to watch her professionalism, how she knows her job, but also how she takes risks, with unusual films, daring films, with real authors. And I see that and think, there you are, and you feel less alone. People think stars have an easy life, but no no no, it is hard, you have to work, there is a lot of attention, you have to smile a lot, there is a lot of determination, and U get inspired by people like that because I would like to include them in my family of people who make life more liveable."
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA6M9M8UGBI9K0X39DJ97LIWH5B
- Story Text: Ladies in red, acclaimed actresses Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci were the picture of Hollywood glamour on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fans crowded to see the two stars at the screening of 'Don't Look Back', in which they both play the same character, who metamorphoses from one woman into another.
The two modern-day icons held up traffic for twenty minutes on Saturday (May 16), as they paraded in front of photographers.
"I needed to have two women with no difference of beauty, two beauties, because otherwise it wouldn't have worked, it would have changed the meaning of the film and it wasn't the purpose, beauty isn't the subject. And also I needed icons because since I transform their appearances it is more touching to see a face you love, a face you know very much, you suffer when it is touched," said the director Marina De Van.
The film character, Jeanne -- a writer, married with two children -- played by Marceau, begins to see unsettling changes in her home. Her body begins to go through changes also. No one around her seems to notice. Her family dismisses these fears as a result of the stress of having to finish her next book, but the protagonist herself realises that something far deeper, far more disturbing is taking place.
A photograph at her mother's house sends her in search of a woman in Italy. Here, transformed into another woman, played by Bellucci, Jeanne will discover the strange secret of her true identity.
Despite having two iconic stars playing one character, the actresses said there was no competition between the two, and indeed no battling for the best position in front of the cameras, they walked down the carpet hand in hand.
"Sophie and myself are very different in life and the director Marina De Van wanted to push this difference, so I emphasised my mediterranean side," said 44 year-old Bellucci.
"Despite that there is a continuity between the two of us in the film, there are moments where you see my face and think you are looking at Sophie, even though there aren't any special effects, and that is just magic being created, with Marina's direction and our way of acting. But it is also a natural alchemy which was created between Sophie and myself, and that is what makes it so magic."
42 year-old Marceau said that despite the physical differences, Monica and herself had very similar backgrounds. Marceau, who first hit the headlines with the 1980s adolescent hit 'La Boum', said they had both started young and had taken on more daring roles during their careers.
"Monica is a very beautiful person, I am not making that up. In general I like observing people, but I am even more curious about people who have taken a similar path, she also started working at a young age, and I like to watch her professionalism, how she knows her job, but also how she takes risks, with unusual films, daring films, with real authors. And I see that and think, there you are, and you feel less alone. People think stars have an easy life, but no no no, it is hard, you have to work, there is a lot of attention, you have to smile a lot, there is a lot of determination, and you get inspired by people like that because I would like to include them in my family of people who make life more liveable," said France's much hailed actress. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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