But films is films and the casting works. Here she has tamped down the skittishness and coltishness, the pouting and snickering that have marred some of her roles. And it has fairly infuriated the reviewers. Knightley seems often to attract an almost visceral dislike. For Keira Knightley herself, regardless of her films, has long attracted bizarrely hostile attitudes, especially from women. Her own shape, as it happens, was revealed as perfectly exquisite but the point probably remains.
Women, not men, piled in to the subsequent debate as to whether this move was sound feminism or not. Why The Pout winds people up so much, I can only guess: evidence of lazy acting, or a simpering need to please, perhaps. It looks fine from where I'm standing, though, and I have to admit I'm always surprised at the level of animosity Knightley seems to attract, just one K short of a lynch mob.
The world joined hands in hating Affleck, but I suspect Knightley has fallen prey to more parochial British backstabbing. And, it has to be said, it's predominately women who seem prone to taking an instant dislike. One colleague of mine spits fire every time her name comes up, citing a litany of reasons, invariably sealed with: " And she has the body of a year-old boy.
That is kind of true, albeit topped with a fantastically beautiful face - one with a genuinely ethereal quality that seems to repay the amount of photographic attention paid to it compare Sienna Miller, her co-star in The Edge of Love, whose more robust, affectless kind of beauty has an echo of Anita Pallenberg and the Swinging London set that colours her media portrayal.
But, say Knightley's detractors and it's hard not to zero in on a note of jealousy , it's her beauty - set against minimal acting ability - that has put her at the top of the industry, and it's her only asset.
The signature pout is just rubbing it in. Last September, Knightley decided to put an end to the obsession once and for all, creating the controversy that would finish off all other controversies. Posing topless in an untampered photograph on the cover of Interview magazine, she outed her assets publicly, protesting that "women's bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame". At this interview, in a black tailored dress - draped over by requisite if stylish cardigan - the actress is completely covered up.
Have I felt like one? Very much an outsider, right now," she smiles adamantly at the row of inquiring reporters, then shudders awkwardly for apparently having just over-shared. I've been fortunate enough to have a choice, people were great and I'm sure the movie will be great.
Finally, she talks about why The Imitation Game was made, rattling off almost non-stop on a long speech. The idea that you can be destroyed because you love a person of the same gender as yourself is shocking.
On a personal level, that was why all of us were so passionate about getting this story out into a wider public," she says, anger on her brow turning into the tiniest glimmer of triumph as she moves from speaking to orating. The face that has launched a thousand perfumes, that has been the distraction of boys and men from their rightful duties in life, that has been unmade and remade for each new incarnation on the screen - is luminescent with anger, joy, almost-perfect make-up, sweat We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused.
And yet dislike her women do. Female jealousy is a form of lust, the desire to know every inch of a beautiful woman in the same way that a man wants to through sex.
But this lust is more powerful than the male kind, and is what has propelled Knightley to her position as a fashion figurehead, role model and Hollywood actress.
What's surprising is that she doesn't seem to generate a voraciousness in men. Ask them why and they will tell you that there is something too poised, too static about her face - and not enough vulgarity in that angular body. Ask either sex whether they set much store by Knightley's acting skills, however, and the response is unanimously tepid.
With commendable modesty, the actress has herself admitted that she is "still improving". Yet it's hard to imagine how far she can do so when you consider that, aside from Bend it Like Beckham , in which the then year-old displayed a promise that has yet to be realised, she has always been given the role of the petulant beauty Love Actually , Pride and Prejudice , Silk , Atonement.
Costume, clever casting, good production and the extraordinary alchemy of that face on film are responsible for her success, which is why the choice of Martin Crimp's updated version of The Misanthrope as a West End stage debut is a smart one.
0コメント