Monica Bellucci names her favourite Monica Bellucci movie: “It gave me so much”
If your only exposure to Monica Bellucci was as an undead Bridezilla in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, then it is time to do some research.
The Italian idol is one of the most prominent performers in the history of her current, nay, all of European cinema. In an industry dominated by Anglo-Americans who speak English as a first language, she has worked incredibly hard to reach this position and long may she continue.
Her list of accomplishments is extremely impressive. Fans of science fiction will know her as Persephone, the alluring wife of the all-powerful Merovingian. Then there’s her turn as a ‘Bond girl’ in Spectre, an achievement she is particularly proud of. You can find her in a range of deeper roles, as well, though, including Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s infamous The Passion of the Christ.
Bellucci’s career, stretching across countries, genres, and all sorts of budgets, is one of the more intriguing ones in modern Hollywood. She’s done such a wide mix of work with so many different people that picking out one standout moment must feel like a proper headache. Still, Glass magazine didn’t shy away from asking – and to be fair, she gave it a go, settling on a memory from the very early days of her climb to stardom.
“I don’t know; it’s so difficult to say. Maybe L’Appartement, [which] gave me so much,” she said. “It was my first French movie, it won a Bafta, and through that film I had the chance to make my first American film, with Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman, called Under Suspicion. And through [Under Suspicion] I could go to Cannes for the first time. It’s incredible how life is strange, and how a mix of coincidences brings you someplace that isn’t [down to] you.”
L’Appartment (which, as you probably figured out, is French for ‘The Apartment’) is a romantic drama from director Gilles Mimouni. Vincent Cassel (whom Bellucci would later marry) plays Max, a former womaniser who has left behind his philandering ways to settle down with a good woman. That is, until an old flame reemerges and throws everything into doubt. Bellucci plays the other woman, Lisa, while poor old Sandrine Kiberlain gets stuck playing Max’s fiancée, Muriel.
Prior to her turn as Lisa, Bellucci was mostly known as a model. She worked for some of the biggest brands in fashion, abandoning plans to become a lawyer to follow her more artistic pursuits. Western viewers might have recognised her as the bride of the titular vampire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but it was the aforementioned Under Suspicion that really brought her to a global audience. She appeared in the thriller alongside Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman. After that, it was off to the races.
Fans of the star will argue over the ‘objective’ quality of L’Appartement based on her other movies, but it’s clearly had a massive effect on her life. Without it, her career, reputation, even her romantic history would be completely different. That’s the sort of impact that only happens a few times in a person’s life, so it obviously deserves its place in her heart.
