In the age of Monica Bellucci
in 2002 and made headlines around the world for its disturbing nineminute rape scene. It was another role played alongside Cassel, with whom she has two children. When the couple split in 2013, it created Brangelina-levels of reaction in Paris, where Bellucci still lives.
She is able to speak four languages. Bellucci has done roles in French, Italian, English and Farsi. Her best-known American credits include the bored wife Persephone in Matrix: Reloaded and Matrix: Revolutions and Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ. So she was a bit surprised when two-time Palme d’Or winner Kusturica asked her to speak Serbian: “I needed to have a (voice) coach with me all the time, because I had to learn what I had to say (phonetically). There was a lot of improvisation on set, as Emir used the script as a base, and then things can change a lot with him.” She says that the director had more faith in her than she did herself – an experience she says isn’t unusual in her career, in which directors have cajoled her to think outside the box: “When Emir gave me the film, I said to him, you do realise the whole film is in Serb, but he said, ‘You can do it’. How do they know? Such as when Sam Mendes came with Spectre. I mean it’s not a normal day when a woman of 50 years gets to be a Bond Girl. I play an opera singer in the 2014 TV series Mozart in the Jungle, and I’ve never done this in my life, so sometimes with directors, they see further.” Mendes, for his part, said he thought Bellucci would be perfect because she has “mystery and depth… I just thought that Monica Bellucci made sense for the story… she has an incredible seductive presence in life and in the movie.” As for On the Milky Road, the film took four years to make, as Kusturica added a series of special effects that augment the magical realist elements, which he combines with his usual cacophony of loud music and crazy shenanigans. The film features a marvellous opening sequence that highlights the confusion of war with bloodied animals, most notably pigs’ heads and geese, and soldiers shooting from all sides, at whom and for what purpose, it’s difficult to know. Yet, while the film has the Balkan War as a backdrop, that’s largely forgotten as the love story unfolds. Bellucci and the film play up the human drama, rather than any political message that some may seek. “I’ve been for four years in this land of beauty and suffering, but I approached this project from a human and artistic point of view, and not a political one.”
Bellucci adds: “It’s so difficult for us to make a judgment about what happened over there. I met so many people, and people who have been through so many horrible things, so while the film is set during the Balkan war from 1990 to 1994, it isn’t necessarily a political film.
“Even though there is violence, it remains a poetic and dreamlike world with a love story, of two adult people who have been through so many hardships. For me this film proves that love and sexuality are a matter of energy and not age.”
Indeed, experience is an increasingly sexy attribute as far as the actress is concerned. She divulges: “Sometimes I meet women aged 60, 70, 80, 90… and they are just amazing. Some men too. I remember when I worked with Helmut Newton – he was 81 at the time and we were sharing this experience together and it was just unbelievable, full of energy. He’s an incredible man. I like a man that has had experiences and been through so many things in their lives, and survived. These men are very sexy and it doesn’t matter what age they are.”
As if to prove the point about her sexuality not diminishing, and seemingly obliterating her own assertion of being a shy person, Bellucci recently made headlines for posing nude in a swimming pool for Paris Match. She says she decided to do the shoot, because “I like doing it. I come from the world of fashion and I love pictures”.
Yet Bellucci can be coy when she wants to be. Asked about her forthcoming role in the muchanticipated Twin Peaks revival, Bellucci smiles, takes her hand up to her mouth and clasps her fingers, thus announcing that she’s staying mute. I don’t even think a damn fine cup of coffee or cherry pie would induce her to say anything more. It seems the shyness arises when it suits, and it’s Bellucci who’s in control. – The Independent