Monica Bellucci, Happy Birthday: life and career of an actress

Monica Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in Città di Castello., in Umbria, the only daughter of Pasquale, who works in a transport company, and Brunella, a housewife; after finishing high school, he started studying law at university, but dropped out before finishing his studies because in the meantime he had started modeling career (besides the fact that since the late eighties she has walked the most important catwalks and posed for calendars such as Pirelli, Max and GQ, she is still a witness and muse of various fashion, perfume and cosmetic brands), which will soon also lead to acting mastery, and he decides to devote himself entirely to this path.

Her debut as an actress on the big and small screen.

From fashion, Monica comes to cinema and television: she made her debut on the small screen in a mini-series. Life with kids (1990) Dino Risi with Giancarlo Giannini and Corinne Clery in two episodes, while he makes his film debut to the cinema Raffle (1991) written and directed by Francesco Laudadio, with Giulio Scarpati and Massimo Ghini; In the film, she plays a woman who, widowed and mired in debt, decides to organize a lottery in which she is the main prize to solve her economic difficulties. They follow this role Stubborn fate (1992) with Alessandro Gassmann and Angela Finocchiaro, Briganti – Love and freedom (1993), a historical drama with Claudio Amendola and Ricky Memphis, which, however, never appeared in cinemas, moving directly to television, while with the same main characters he returned to acting in Legendary – The Hunchback was shot in Milan (1994), a crime comedy by the Vanzin brothers, then an ensemble film. the sky is getting bluer (1996) and his first family fantasy comedy. Snowball (1995) Maurizio Nichetti with Paolo Villaggio.

Success in Italian cinema

Although she also began her international career as an actress, especially in France, as we will see later, she did not neglect Italian cinema, where she starred in e.g. Last New Year

(1998) by Marco Risi – a black comedy based on a story by Niccolò Ammaniti, which had limited success in cinemas upon release, but over time gained cult status and also won him Golden Globe for Best Actress.
An Italian film, which, however, sanctifies its fame at the world level, Malena (2000) by Giuseppe Tornatore (for whom, in fact, many years later he would also play a cameo role in his super act Baaria (2009), the story of a charming woman from a small Sicilian village during World War II who attracts the attention of men of all ages; this follows one of his most critically acclaimed roles as well as great success with the public, i.e. Remember me (2003) by Gabriele Muccino, in which she plays the long-time love of the protagonist Fabrizio Bentivoglio, a role that captivates her. Nastro d’Argento and David di Donatello Award nomination.
In Italy, the actress also devotes herself to filming some comedies, such as N (Napoleon and me) (2006) as a wealthy baroness, a costume film with Daniel Auteuil and Elio Germano, directed by Paolo Virzi (who would call her back later for a small role in Drought2022), and takes part, albeit in two completely different roles, in episodes of the film Management love 2- Next chapters (2007), together with Riccardo Scamarcio, who Guide to Love 3 (2011), where he teams up with none other than Robert De Niro, both directed by Giovanni Veronesi.
On the dramatic front, she stars alongside Luca Zingaretti in the costume biopic. crazy blood (2008) as Luisa Ferida, an Italian actress during the twenty years of fascism, the mistress of her colleague Osvaldo Valenti, opposite Pierfrancesco Favino in a sentimental drama The man she loves (2008) and stars in Miracles (2014) by Alice Rohrwacher.
Among his last films in our country we remember the prequel Befana Comes at Night II – Origins (2021), as the witch Dolores, and sequel Diabolik – Ginko is on the attack! (2022).

French career

As Monica Bellucci herself has stated many times in the past, in order to feel truly appreciated and establish herself as a well-rounded actress, from the mid-1990s she found a professional outlet in France, where she was offered more satisfying roles. than in Italy; there he made his debut in a sentimental film Apartment (1996), a project that also proved fundamental to his personal life: it was on this set that he met colleague Vincent Kasselwho would become her husband for many years, and with whom she trained a professional collaboration that saw them appear together in many other games; among them we mention Doberman (1997), for which she learns sign language while playing a deaf-mute woman. Pleasure and its children inconvenience (1998), Uncontrollable – no rules (1999), Pact of the Wolves (2001), irreversible (2002), an experimental drama thriller that caused a lot of controversy at the time due to a very long scene of sexual violence in one frame, which centers on its character, Agent secrets

(2004), Sheitan (2006), in which he is the main character and producer, and she plays only a cameo role, and also an Italian film. Like me You want (1996).
Among other Trans-Alpine films by Monica Bellucci, we remember the thriller Like a fish out of water (1998), Striptease-deadly attraction (2000), Asterix and Obelix – Mission Cleopatra (2002), For sex or for Love? (2005), Selected (2006), Second soufflé (2007), Don’t look back (2009), brilliant summer (2011), Welcome to Saint-Tropez (2013), Canadian Ville-Marie (2015), The best years of our lives (2019), concluding Claude Lelouch’s trilogy with Anouk Aimé and Jean-Louis Trintignant, as well as the TV series Call me agent! (2018) (which, as you know, recently released a local version); The film finally arrived on home video recently. Fantasies (2021), ensemble comedy.

Roles in American cinema and beyond

Monica Bellucci was also one of the very few Italian actresses who also managed to appear frequently in American cinema, starting with a very small and dialogue-free role as one of Dracula’s wives, but in such a very respectable film as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola; Then came more significant roles, like in a thriller. Under suspicion (2000) with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, Last dawn (2003) with Bruce Willis, a war film that, however, had disappointing results, a brief appearance in one of the most famous sagas in film history, Matrix reloaded (2003)e MatrixRevolutions (2003), then the role of Mary Magdalene in the highly controversial film Christ’s Passion (2003) by Mel Gibson, a film that upon its release caused countless controversies and an almost unprecedented incident, both in the media and beyond, but still remained one of the most viewed films of its cinematic season, followed by She hates me (2004) Spike Lee The Brothers Grimm and the Enchanting Witch (2005) by Terry Gilliam (Italian title changed to emphasize his presence in the cast), Shoot them – shoot or die! (2007), action film with Clive Owen, sentimental drama The Secret Life of Mrs. Lee (2009) with Robin Wright, fantasy The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010) with Nicolas Cage, political thriller Informant (2010) with Rachel Weisz, and also did not miss the James Bond saga, with a role in Ghost (2015) Sam Mendes with 007 Daniel Craig; she also appeared in some episodes of the series Mozart in the junglewith Gael García Bernal and, playing herself, in the final season Twin Peaks David Lynch. the last international film we saw her in as a supervillain was an action movie Memory (2022) with Liam Neeson.

Monica Bellucci also wanted to test herself by visiting filmographies of other countries, in international joint projects, in which she also tried her hand at various foreign languages: example: Seasons rhinoceros (2012) by Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, or Brazilian drama To Quebrada (2014), Serbian Along the milky road (2016) Emir Kusturica, Australian action film Necrotronic (2018) and The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020), Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania.

Where will we see Monica Bellucci again?

In the cinema, Monica Bellucci will reprise the role of Duchess Althea of ​​Wallenberg in Diabolic – Who are you?

will hit our screens in November and the crime comedy will be released on home video. mafia mom, in which he joins Toni Collette; then it will be continued Beetle juice Tim Burton (credited as his new companion) in the film Paris ParadisFrench-Iranian director Marjane Satrapi and in the television production in the role Tina Modotti.