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Name Penelope Cruz Born 28 April 1974.
Background Born to a retailer and a hairdresser, she spent her childhood annoying her parents by re-enacting Spanish TV commercials. Finally plumping for dance. she studied classrcal ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory. At 15 she beat 300 other girls at a talent agency audition and landed several roles in TV shows and music videos. Cruz made her movie debut in Javier Bardem's Jambn Jamo’n (1992). She went on to win praise for her roles in Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque. Almodovar‘s Live Flesh and All About my Mother and Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes. In 2000 she began her US career with Fina Torres' rubbish girly drama Woman on Top and things didn't get much better with decidedly iffy roles in Demme's Blow (2001) opposite Johnny Depp and Crowe's Vanilla Sky opposite Tom Cruise — who became a suitor for a short while. She has recently returned to Europe to work on more interesting projects.
What’s she up to now? She's gone all-Italian as ltalia. the peasant objet de passion of Sergio Castilletti's surgeon in the incredibly watchable melodrama Don‘t Move. She also has seven features slated between now and 2006 to be directed by the likes of John Duigan, Almodovar. Martha Fiennes and Chazz Palmenteri. She's a very busy lady.
What she says about being a screen goddess. “The most difficult thing in the w0rld is to start a career known only for your looks. and then to try to become a serious actress. No one will take you seriously once you are known as the pretty woman.‘ Interesting fact Cruz has just been rejected by an Indian adoption agency because she wasn't married. despite declaring that she may now be ready to settle down with current beau — actor Matthew McConaughey.
I Don't Move is at Fr/mhouse. Edinburgh from Fn' 78 Mar. See interview, page 57 and review, right.
50 THE LIST 17—31 Mar 2005
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DRAMA MARIA FULL OF GRACE (15) 100min 0000
Acting for the first time, Oscar-nominated Catalina Sandina Moreno plays Maria Alvarez, a cocky 17-year-old from a rural Columbian backwater who wrestles with a predictable life of low wage factory work, family responsibilities and an underwhelming boyfriend. When she accidentally becomes pregnant, she falls in the eye sight of local Bogota biker boy Juan (deliciously portrayed by Jhon Alex Toro) who lures her into his den with promises of high earnings and international travel. She quickly realises that becoming a drug mule is the job of choice, and that it is her only chance of escaping to a new life. So with a belly full of heroin she prepares to fly to New York.
So far so formula, yet Maria's second part delivers a cliche-free portrait of a desperate young girl in New York who is gutsy and headstrong. This is not the city from NYPD Blue but one in which the drug collectors are lazy and botch up their part of the bargain. There are no guns, rape scenes or sexy action cool car chases. With a strong supporting cast of actors and non-actors - in particular newcomer Yenny Paola Vega playing Maria’s clinging best friend Blanca - Marston’s young protagonist survives through common sense and guts.
Thematically, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic is an easy comparison as both films shift our perspectives on the socio-economic dynamics of the war on drugs. More interestingly Maria is also a close cousin to Michael Winterbottom's In this World, as both are shot in docudrama style and based on actual stories of immigrants looking for a better life. Photographed in a Loachean style by Jim Denault (Boys Don’t Cry, The Believer) on a shoestring budget, the film has the urgency of real life. You may ask yourself how an LA-born Jewish boy can get under the skin of a 17-year-old Columbian girl. Marston's bold debut feature has done just that. (Selina Robertson)
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HORROR CONSTANTINE (15) 121 min on
Ahhh. John Constantine. star of the Hel/b/azer comics. chain smoker. occult detective and all round bastard. Re .788 first bretight to life by COllllCS god Alan Moore .‘Jlllllll the pages of S‘s/amp Thing. and flu COuldn't help but love his ramshackle attempts to save the .vorld.
Keanu Ree/es stars as the epon/mOUS semi-hero as he teams up ~.-/ith tormented. yet gorgeous. COp Angela Dodson 'Rachei \f/C‘ISZ) who is desperater trying to unra/el the