Monica Bellucci

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French films.

She made her film debut in Francesco Laudadio's Italian comedy '' La Riffa'' (1991). The following year she played a Bride of Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's gothic horror romance film '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' (1992). For her leading role in '' L'Appartement'' (1997), she received a César Award for Most Promising Actress. She played Malèna Scordia in the Giuseppe Tornatore's acclaimed Italian romantic drama '' Malèna'' (2000). She starred in Gaspar Noé's controversial arthouse psychological thriller film '' Irréversible'' (2002), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2004, she portrayed Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's biblical drama ''The Passion of the Christ'' (2004). She portrayed Persephone in the 2003 science-fiction films ''The Matrix Reloaded'' and ''The Matrix Revolutions''. At the age of 51, by appearing in the 2015 James Bond film ''Spectre'', she became the oldest Bond girl in the history of the franchise. She has since acted in films such as ''The Whistleblower'' (2010), '' The Wonders'' (2014), ''On the Milky Road'' (2016), ''The Best Years of a Life'' (2019), ''The Man Who Sold His Skin'' (2020), and ''Memory'' (2022).

Early life

Bellucci was born 30 September 1964 in Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci, and grew up in Lama of San Giustino.

Career

Modelling

Monica Bellucci began modelling at age 13 by posing for a local photo enthusiast. In 1988, Bellucci left the Faculty of Law at the University of Perugia, and moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, where she signed with Elite Model Management with the aid of model agent Piero Piazzi. 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. The February 2001 ''Esquire'''s feature on Desire featured Bellucci on the cover and in an article on the five senses.

In 2003, she was featured in ''Maxim''. ''Men's Health'' also named her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 21. AskMen named her the number one most desirable woman in 2002. According to two national newspapers, she is considered an Italian sex symbol.

In 2004, while pregnant with her daughter Deva, Bellucci posed nude for the Italian ''Vanity Fair'' in protest against an Italian law that restricts the provision of fertility treatment to heterosexual couples and excludes single women or same-sex couples, restricts surrogacy and research using human embryos, forbids sperm and egg donation, and limits the number of embryos created with in-vitro techniques to three. She posed pregnant and semi-nude again for the magazine's April 2010 issue. From 2006 to 2010 Bellucci was the face of a range of Dior products.

In 2012, she became the new face of Dolce & Gabbana. She is managed by Elite+ in New York City. Bellucci is signed to D'management Group in Milan and also to Storm Management in London. Bellucci also posed for ''GQ Italia'' in February 2016.

Bellucci walked the runway for the Spring 2019 Milan Fashion Week for Dolce and Gabbana. Joining her included Isabella Rossellini, Eva Herzigová and Helena Christensen, continuing the influx of 90s supermodels returning to the spotlight of fashion.

Acting

Bellucci's film career began in the early 1990s. She played some minor roles in '' La Riffa'' (1991) and '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' (1992). In 1996, she was nominated for a César Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Lisa in ''The Apartment'' and strengthened her position as an actress. She became known and popular with worldwide audiences, following her roles in '' Malèna'' (2000), '' Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (2001) and '' Irréversible'' (2002).

She has since played in many films from Europe and Hollywood like ''Tears of the Sun'' (2003), ''The Matrix Reloaded'' (2003), ''The Passion of the Christ'' (2004), ''The Brothers Grimm'' (2005), '' Le Deuxième souffle'' (2007), ''Shoot 'Em Up'' (2007), '' Don't Look Back'' (2009) and ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' (2010).

She 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 film ''Robots''. She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic ''Sonia'', originally planned for release in 2007, but it has been shelved. Bellucci dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film ''Shoot 'Em Up'' (2007).

In 2011, Bellucci was ranked fourth in ''Los Angeles Times Magazine''s list of the 50 most beautiful women in film.

At 50, she became the oldest Bond girl ever in the James Bond film franchise, playing Lucia Sciarra in ''Spectre'' (2015). Three years later, she appeared in the Australian film ''Nekrotronic''.

In 2021 she was honoured with Stella Della Mole Award for Artistic Innovation at 39th Torino Film Festival considering her lifetime achievements.

Personal life

At the age of 20, Bellucci married Italian photographer Claudio Carlos Basso; they divorced after six months.

From 1989 to 1995, she had a relationship with Italian actor Nicola Farron.

She met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of their 1996 film ''The Apartment''. They married on 2 August 1999 in Monaco. Bellucci and Cassel have two daughters, Deva (born 12 September 2004) and Léonie (born 21 May 2010). Their daughters were born in Rome. Bellucci and Cassel acted together in nine films from 1996 to 2006. The couple announced their separation on 26 August 2013 and later divorced. At the end of 2014, Bellucci said she was still enamoured of Cassel; both have remained close ever since.

After her divorce, Bellucci was in a relationship with French sculptor and former model Nicolas Lefebvre, who was then 37 years old. They made it official in early March 2019 during a Chanel show at the ''Grand Palais'' in Paris. She announced the end of their relationship in early July 2019.

Bellucci lived with Cassel and their daughters in Italy, France, Brazil, and England. Then, in 2015, she decided to settle in Paris. Bellucci says, "Paris is part of my history", but she nevertheless considers herself "completely Italian. Everything in me is Italian." She has houses in Lisbon and Rome. During the coronavirus lockdowns, Bellucci and Cassel lived in two nearby houses on the Basque coast (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) so that the latter could see his daughters and thus continue to share parental duties.

Bellucci is fluent in Italian, French, and English. Deva became Dolce & Gabbana's muse at the age of 15 and, later, their runway model. Her daughters' native language is Italian; Deva spoke five languages ​​at the age of 16.

In the documentary movie ''The Big Question'', about the film ''The Passion of the Christ'', Bellucci 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 2009, Bellucci signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Dubbing roles

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* http://www.monicabellucci.net at Official Web Site
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellucci, Monica
1964 births
Living people
People from Città di Castello
Italian female models
Italian film actresses
Italian video game actresses
Italian agnostics
Nastro d'Argento winners
20th-century Italian actresses
21st-century Italian actresses
University of Perugia alumni
Italian expatriates in France
Italian expatriates in Spain
Italian expatriates in Brazil
Italian expatriates in the United States
Magritte Award winners
People named in the Pandora Papers