Skinny-dipping with Angelina Jolie
I’m re-reading A Dame To Kill For at the moment–my favorite Sin City yarn and the graphic novel that will form the centerpiece for the upcoming Sin City (2005) sequel. One look at the panel below unveils how grateful we should all be for Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez to have cast the curvaceous Angelina Jolie in the leading role. If their faithfulness to the source material in the first adaptation is any indication – and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be – expect OODLES of nudity in the next installment…
It’s easy to be entertained by Sin City‘s glorious design and think that’s all there is to it. The hard-boiled prose blown to Shakespearean proportions, the one-dimensional pulp archetypes and a downright fetishistic attention to sleaze and violence, make it seem all surface. And yet Miller taps into the romantic core of masculinity to give flesh to the most primal of urges.
A story like A Dame to Kill For laughs at the whole flimsy notion of civilization – social etiquette, virtue, nobility, tact – rips it open like the cheap dress that it is and reveals the roaring heart underneath. If film noir taught us that love is a trap, the inhabitants of Sin City show us how much we love to be trapped. Even if destiny looks us right in the eye, we can’t help giving in to our animal instincts.
Which brings us back to überwoman Angelina Jolie… A word of advice: Forget the bad press Mrs. Pitt is currently getting because of the boring Brangelina hype. That’s gossip for losers. Forget all about that silly little tomboy called Lara Croft. Stuff for twelve-year-olds. Ava Lord is the role Angelina Jolie was born to play. The actress always seems slightly out-of-place in realistic settings, and here’s why: Sin City is where she truly belongs.
To be credible in Sin City, only the incredible will do. Jolie’s supernatural charisma will be a natural fit for the Frank Miller universe. Divine physique? Check. Throaty voice? Check. Unrestrained pleasure to the senses? Check. Danger lurking behind almond eyes? Check. We’re talking about Ava Lord here: the femme fatale to end all femmes fatale. It was a very inspired decision of the filmmakers to postpone the production of their sequel until after Jolie’s pregnancy. This dame shall be worth the wait.
Whoa! Where did that pic of Ms. Jolie in the rubber/vinyl/leather/whatever getup come from? Put her in something like that, and I almost won’t care if she gets completely nude or not! (Almost.) As I was reading your piece, I was trying to remember if she’s ever done nudity (R-rated variety, not full frontal) before. If she has, I can’t say that I remember seeing it (and now that I’ve said that, of course, someone will chime in with the one obvious example that I somehow managed to forget!) If she hasn’t, I wonder if she and Rodriguez and Miller will tailor the concept of the character to cut down or mask the nudity shomewhat. I’m speaking here as someone unfamiliar with the Sin City books, so I’m not even sure if such watering-down is even conceivable. For those who appreciate Rodriguez’s approach regarding integrity to the source material of the first film (and nothing else– ahem!), I certainly hope not!
I think it’s latex, Dennis–although it’s been a long time since I hanged in the S&M dungeon. 😉
Angelina’s done nudity before. In Gia, I think, and in that movie with Antonio Banderas. BOTH I haven’t seen (dammit!). Your question made a faithful husband and father of two type “Angelina Jolie naked” into Google. Here’s what came up on top:
http://www.gorillamask.net/aj2.shtml
As the link above proves, for the sake of art alone, watering down A Dame to Kill For would be a crime…
If their faithfulness to the source material in the first adaptation is any indication – and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be – expect OODLES of nudity in the next installment…
One can hope. Although its somewhat disconcerting to think that the one big change Rodriguez made to the first film was cutting out most of the nudity. Hopefully it was an actress issue – Jolie, as she’s proved in Gia, that Banderas film, that Ethan Hawke serial killer movie and one or two other films – doesn’t seem to have the same inhibitions that Jessica Alba does.
Yes, that’s true. Actually, I’m in a minority here, but I really believe Jessica Alba didn’t cut it as Nancy Callahan. Sure, she’s a babe, but a dancer she ain’t. And she’s, like, dressed and everything… Gotta love Carla Gugino and Rosario Dawson, though.
Gee, I should think of a very intelligent next topic now, otherwise I’ll never be taken seriously in the blogosphere.
Agree 100% with this post Peet. You should definitely check out GIA and ORIGINAL SIN (that Banderas film). Those are her two best roles, mainly because they allow her to be totally sexually uninhibited on screen–which she was born to be. Is she our greatest modern movie star? I think she is.
Dennis, that pic is from MR. AND MRS. SMITH, which is not anywhere near as bad as advertised.
Trouble is, she’s so skinny now, I don’t know if she could do it justice.