Friday, October 3, 2014

Cate Blanchett


Photographed By Ellinor Forje

Acting is pretending. And Cate Blanchett is good at it. Pretending. She pretends to be a mere mortal. Like she'd bleed if she were pricked. I don't believe it for a second.

Clad in a low key Stella McCartney dress that tastefully revealed her arms and torso (I'll write a seperate thesis about her oxblood pumps someday, they had us floored), IWC Schaffhausen's brand ambassador, Blanchett opened the "Timeless Portofino" exhibition at the Zurich Film Festival on September 27, 2014. The exhibition which displays IWC's latest collection campaign was shot by photographer Peter Lindbergh, the man who - in recent fashion history's smartest move - persuaded Linda Evangelista to crop her mane.

The "Timeless Portofino" campaign further stars Christoph Waltz, Emily Blunt, Zhou Xun, YOO-uhn Muh-GREH-gur (that's Ewan McGregor, sorry Obi-Wan Kenobi, I couldn't resist), Adriana Lima and Karolina Kurkova - who said, "We had no hair and makeup. So that was quite, you know, pure. And very natural. Very raw, especially for a shoot."

The images, mostly in black and white, are raw yet polished. German expressionism at its finest. The finest of art. Or, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres to which Blanchett was made a Chevalier (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2012:  Two years before winning her second Academy Award for playing Jasmine in Woody Allen's drama "Blue Jasmine" (2013), a role that would have been a defining moment for many actresses. But unlike many actresses, Blanchett defines every role, every moment.

Her performance in "Blue Jasmine" is no exception. As a matter of fact, within minutes of viewing the movie, it's clear that the nominations are going to come flying for both the director and cast members for a plot centred around the saying, "Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen". Jasmine's life in San Francisco, at her sister's apartment, after a forced relocation succeeding a divorce from her high roller Manhattanite husband played by Alec Baldwin, is very different from her ballin' days residing on the Upper East Side. It's also a far cry from the pittoresque landscape captured by Lindbergh up for inspection at the festival.

While on site, I take a closer look at Cate Banchett. I notice that she isn't really that attractive at all. She's outlandishly beautiful and human.

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