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Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model. In 2003, Bellucci starred in Tears of the Sun as a doctor in Nigeria being rescued by the U.S., and in 2005 in the fantasy film The Brothers Grimm as a beautiful evil queen. Her latest films are The Stone Council, directed by the Frenchman Guillaume Nicloux (2006) and Manuale d'amore 2 (2007) where she portrays a physiotherapist who is the object of the desire of her patient.
She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic Sonia, originally planned for release in 2007 but now shelved. September 2007 saw the release of Shoot 'Em Up, where she plays a prostitute opposite Clive Owen. She dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film. She filmed Le Deuxième souffle with Daniel Auteuil, Michel Blanc and Eric Cantona (2006). Bellucci also voiced Kaileena in the video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and the French voice of Cappy for the French version of the 2005 animated movie Robots. In 2007, she appeared in Heartango, a movie for Intimissimi, with José Fidalgo and directed by Gabriele Muccino.
Monica Bellucci (born September 30,
1964) is an Italian actress and former fashion model.
She is considered an Italian sex symbol.
Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy,
to Luigi Bellucci and Maria Gustinelli. Initially
pursuing a career as a lawyer, Bellucci decided to start
modeling in order to help pay for her tuition while at
the University of Perugia, but the glamorous lifestyle
tempted Monica away from her law studies.
She speaks Italian, French, and English fluently and has
acted in each of these languages, as well as Aramaic.
She is married to fellow actor Vincent Cassel, with whom
she has appeared in several films and had a daughter,
named Deva (born September 12, 2004). In 2004, while
pregnant with her daughter, Bellucci posed nude for the
Italian Vanity Fair Magazine in protest against Italian
laws that allow only married couples to use in-vitro
fertilization and that prevent the use of donor sperm.
Career, Modeling:
In 1988, Bellucci moved to one of Europe's fashion
centers, Milan, where she signed with Elite Model
Management. By 1989, she was becoming prominent as a
fashion model in Paris and across the Atlantic, in New
York City. She posed for Dolce & Gabbana and French
ELLE, among others.
In that year, Bellucci made the
transition to acting and began taking acting classes. In
2003, she was featured in Maxim. In 2004, she topped
AskMen's 100 Most Beautiful Women in the World annual
list. Bellucci's modelling career is managed by Elite+
in NYC.
Entertainment: Bellucci's film career began in
the early 1990s. In 1992 she made her first appearance
in a major English-language film as one of Dracula's
brides in Bram Stoker's Dracula. She became known and
popular with English-speaking audiences following her
lead role in the acclaimed Italian film Malèna, as well
as through the portrayal of a rape victim in the highly
controversial Irréversible, though is perhaps best
known for her role as Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded
and The Matrix Revolutions followed by her portrayal of
Mary Magdelene in The Passion of the Christ.
After her work in The Passion of the Christ, Bellucci
was assumed by many fans to be Roman Catholic. However
in a documentary about the film, The Big Question, she
stated: "I am an Agnostic, even though I respect
and am interested in all religions. If there's something
I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that
fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites
nature and beings.", In 2005, Belucci starred in
The Brothers Grimm as a beautiful evil queen.
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, Bellucci
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, 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.
Her latest films are The Stone Council, directed by the
Frenchman Guillaume Nicloux (2006) and Manuale d'amore 2
(2007) where she portrays a physiotherapist in the first
segment of the film who is object of the desire of her
patient. She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian
politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic Sonia planned for
release in 2007 but that has now been shelved.
As of February 2007 she has finished
Shoot 'Em Up, where she plays a prostitute opposite
Clive Owen, and is currently filming Le Deuxième
souffle, an Alain Corneau thriller with Daniel Auteuil,
Michel Blanc and former football player Eric Cantona.
Bellucci also voiced as Kaileena in the video game
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. |
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