The Ultimate Screen Siren
World Movies is asking you to name the most alluring world cinema leading lady – and we’ve kicked things off in the office by selecting our favourites!
While Americans and Brits often dominate the multiplex and the mainstream, many of our most memorable and iconic screen actresses hail from Europe and Asia. In recognition of this fact, World Movies has compiled a definitive list of female sex symbols, and is asking viewers to vote for their favourites in a Screen Sirens poll.
Voting's open now and World Movies will be counting down the results over June. Over five weeks, the five most popular leading ladies will have their classic film screened each Friday night, until the ultimate screen siren is reached on June 29.
We thought we'd get in the spirit of things and let you know the picks from the FilmInk office.
Dov Kornits (Publisher) - Monica Bellucci
My favourite is Monica Bellucci because I once met her. Erin [Free, editor] and I wangled our way into interviewing her whilst she was in Sydney filming the Matrix sequel. I was Erin's assistant on the day because we couldn't decide which of us would interview her. And this was because she's a great actress of course and we wanted to talk Irreversible.
Erin Free (Editor) - Monica Bellucci
She's close to being the perfect European movie star: deliriously beautiful, but with an icy, undeniable edge and a taste for films that push the envelope at every turn, from her gut-wrenching, full bodied performance in the excoriating and unforgettable masterpiece Irreversible through to her largely wordless - but nothing short of stunning - essaying of Mary Magdalene in The Passion Of The Christ.
Richard de Carvalho (Designer) - Marion Cotillard
A modern day classic actress - brave and fearless, her natural beauty is rivalled only by her talent. Apart from her other fine acting roles in French cinema, Cotillard's powerhouse performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose is both inspirational and flawless. One of the most beautiful actresses in the world, Cotillard is making a (seemingly) effortless venture into Hollywood films, with scene stealing performances in Midnight In Paris, Inception and Contagion. She even made A Good Year and Nine bearable.
Rashmi Chandramouli (Account Manager) - Aishwarya Rai
How could I go past the stunning and versatile beauty from my homeland of India-Aishwarya Rai. A true beauty (having won the Miss World pageant), but also a very talented actress that has played roles in various Indian dialects, as well as breaking out into western cinema. She holds her own in movies with some of the absolute greats in Indian cinema including Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, and she is truly a great ambassador for Indian cinema in general.
Cara Nash (Website Manager) - Maggie Cheung
I'm picking Maggie Cheung because she has that effortlessly chic thing down pat. She's almost surreally beautiful in In The Mood For Love, but the film that really got me was her once-husband, Olivier Assayas' Clean - which I luckily snagged a copy of from the FilmInk office! Cheung plays a Yoko Ono-esque wife of a rockstar on a journey to redemption. Cutting through the actress' cool, this ends up heartbreaking and affecting stuff. On top of that, Clean was shot just after Cheung and Assayas had separated, and apparently the pair signed their divorce papers on set, which sounds like the stuff of movies in itself.
Nicholas Adams (Intern) - Anna Mouglalis
Her portrayal of the iconic designer in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky was a sumptuous blend of regal, chic and sexy, especially evident in a scene where she walks down a facetted mirror staircase refracting her many exquisite angles. Making love to Mads Mikkelsen's Stravinsky on his steinway was provocative enough to motivate one to learn how to play the piano. Their fiery affair left me craving such intensity, and their conviction to their art coupled with the film's aesthetic drew me in to be willingly dashed on perilous rocks, just to be closer to Mouglalis.
Voting is open until May 31. See the full list of screen sirens and cast your vote here. The top five results will begin to be screened every week from Friday, June 1 at 8.30pm.
