Monica Bellucci — Gorgeous. Italian. Pouty-lipped. Done a decent amount of historical movies! Let’s take a look:
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
As the Head of Dracula’s Vampire Bride Department, Bellucci gets the best headdress (designed by famed costume designer Eiko):
See? I have NO idea what the chick on the right has up with her ponytail holder.
Briganti: Amore e Libertà (1994)
Bellucci and her co-star grow up together and fall in love, then he’s kicked out of his family while she’s sent to a monastery (as one does). They grow up, he gets involved in the “brigands” who are fighting (for? against? I’m Google translating Italian Wikipedia here) Italian unification in 1860, and the two hook back up.
Ya know, just hanging around waiting for my rebel boyfriend to show. As one does.
A Los que Aman (1998)
She plays Valeria, “a beautiful and mysterious fencing master” per IMDB, in this definitely-historical-but-I-have-no-idea-when Spanish film.
Ole!
Malèna (2000)
In a small Italian town during World War II, all the men lust after (and all the women hate) Malèna for her beauty (and the fact that her husband is away fighting). Shit gets worse. I’m pretty sure this is the definition of the male gaze.
But Bellucci looks chic in black & white!
Redhead – yea or nay?
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
Part period drama, part martial arts film, part gothy horror, all set in a fantastical mid-18th-century France. Bellucci’s character is a shady Italian courtesan.
Yes it’s UBER gothy, costume-wise.
But dang, it does gothy quite fabulously.
Can one go wrong with an 18th-century riding habit? Discuss.
So the lace mask is working for me, even if the Victorian Trading Co. necklace raises my eyebrows.
No idea about paillettes, I just know Bellucci looks fab.
Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra (2002)
A live-action film based on the French comics, which are set in Roman Gaul, with Bellucci as the Egyptian queen.
Okay you have to admit that this is FABULOUS, even if probably totally inaccurate.
She’s the Egyptian Ursula the sea witch?
Totally bizarre, totally fabulous.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Yes, Mel Gibson’s Biblical drama. I usually skip Biblical stuff, because the costumes aren’t that interesting. But I’m being a completionist here.
Plus, push-up bra ahoy!
N (Io e Napoleone) (2006)
A teacher befriends the Emperor Napoleon during his imprisonment on the Isle of Elba; Bellucci plays an Italian countess with whom the emperor is in love.
Gorgeous color!
I assume that’s the teacher? WHAT’S WITH THE MODERN PANTS?
Okay, but the over-robe is super gorgeous!
Wild Blood (2008)
Bellucci plays real-life Italian actress Luisa Ferida, who was shot for being a fascist at the end of World War II.
Very “Casablanca.”
What’s your fave Monica Bellucci role in historical costume?
Brotherhood of the wolves FTW! fist pump Oh, and just a little detail about the Briganti thing: I guess a girl would be sent to a Nunnery, not a Monastery. Because monks and all that jazz…
HAHAHAHHAHAHHA – right! That was me working from a bad Google translate of Italian Wikipedia!
Oh Malena. My mum dragged me to see it with her then-date. I was a high schooler, I saw plenty of adolescent boys go on and on about sex MOnday through Friday. I didn’t need any more of that.
Yeah, it sounds like torture!
Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Is it me, or does she kind of look like Isabelle Adjani? I seem to remember the end of ” Malena”; all the women in the village dragged her out of her house, cut off her hair, and basically beat the crap out of her.
I..I think that I need to see Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra. It looks awesome AND terrible.
Do it, it’s the best of the series. But also very French. If you’re not, still good, but not as fun.
Cleopatra is totally the best of the live-action Asterix movies. So much fun, and Bellucci gets fab get-ups as Cleopatra.
I’m down for some fab get-ups!
In ‘Brotherhood of the wolves’ she was highly gorgeous! In ’N.’ she acted in a very nice role, but it needs to manage well Italian language, because the director Virzì choose her in order to play with her original accent of the Umbria countryside (Città di Castello); the outcome has been a successful contrast, playing a young, passionate, distinguished noblewoman with a popular speaking.