November 28, 2007

Penelope Cruz for December Vogue

"You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else's point of view"




Regarding my opinion of Penelope Cruz, I've always been neither here nor there. In Vanilla Sky, she was fairy-tale, overly adorable, almost childlike with a forced free-spirited laughter. She whined too much in Blow, albeit she played the nagging wife with the husband in jail role well. And then Almodóvar places her in her native Spanish-speaking roles where she is suddenly her best; her cuteness matures and she is Spain's leading lady of cinema.

After reading Vogue's December cover story of Penelope, I decided I liked her. She could be an Audrey Hepburn role, a femme fatale, or even a screwball comedy protagonist as Almodóvar suggested. Writer Gaby Wood angles the piece to illustrate Penelope's Almovodar-coined "proletariat" spirit-something uniting compassion, hard-work and worthiness of success. The shoot was photographed by Annie Leibovitz, who captures the spirit of a woman incredibly, in Segovia, Spain. Styled in gowns by Marchesa, she captures the essence of a Spanish rose, reflecting both an embedded image of a Spanish princesa and her forthcoming film Manolete, about a Spanish bullfighter who sacrifices his animal rights beliefs for the love of a woman. As for her collaboration with MANGO, she flashes red lips, flapper dresses, and sophisticated business attire, which she co-designed with her sister. At heart I think she really is a girl of the people, but not far is her high society Madrileño costume for when she needs it.

No comments: