this is not a great film, but Catherine Mccormick turns in a stunning performance -- maybe one fo the best i've seen as an actress. There's one scene where she's required to demonstratea range of emotion simply with her body and facial expressions. It's brilliant and one that should be studied by every aspiring actress.
shareYes, I agree that Catherine McCormack is one heck of a good actress. I wish she were in more films because she's so very talented. Braveheart gave her such a small role. Also, check out her work in The Land Girls where she works alongside Rachel Weisz!
shareI think Catherine McCormick is very underrated...She is one of the great English beauties and a truly stunning actress. I would love to see her in more films and I think Dangerous Beauty was a star-making performance. She shows such vulernability and sensuality...she should've received a best actress nomination for her performance.
shareOh, I loved this movie! It's one of my favorites..maybe also because of Rufus Sewell ;P Catherine is amazing actress and truly very underrated..many GREAT actors and actresses are :(
shareCatherine McCormick gives an excellent performance in the lead, but Naomi Watts, who plays Marco's wife, would have been just as good. The makeup people tried to make georgeous Naomi look plain in this movie, but failed. Now there's a pleasant thought: Naomi Watts as your wife, and Catherine McCormick as your mistress. I think I could live with that, if I had sufficient stamina.
If you look at Catherine McCormick's picture here and elsewhere on the web you will see her wearing plain plastic rim eyeglasses. Since she obviously could afford contact lenses, I find that a rather charming statement of absence of vanity.
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Someone mentioned her small role in Braveheart but they didn't mention how memorable and how crucial that performance was to set up the basis for the remainder of the film. She's a fantastic actress and her performance in this movie is a testament of her wonderful ability.
Someone else mentioned her deserving an oscar nomination but some possible insight as to why she did not was that both Gwyneth Paltrow *and* Cate Blanchett were nominated for roles in the same time period in "Shakespeare In Love" and "Elizabeth", respectively. Imagine if they had three actresses nominated for roles that all stemmed from that time period. If "Dangerous Beauty" had been released in 97 or 99 maybe she could of netted her on nomination, even if I think she preformed much, much better than Paltrow.
Concerning the oscars, the year was strange because the five movies up for Best Picture had only two eras: World War II (Life Is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line) and Victorian England (the two aforementioned movies). Roberto Benigni took home the best actor oscar which left many people watching at home saying "Who? Why didn't Tom Hanks win?" (but I love the choice). Judy Dench won an oscar for a role in which she was only on screen for 7 minutes. In addition, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench were both nominated for oscars for playing the same role (Queen Elizabeth I) in different movies, a first for the oscars.
Funny note: While I was in collage, I used to write random tidbits of movie and music quotes on my tests to help me concentrate (just accept that as true if it sounds odd) as I have severe ADD (I can do three things at once but not one thing at a time) and I was set to the administrator's office only after I wrote the opening poem of the movie...
"We danced our youth in a dreamed of city,
Venice, paradise, proud and pretty
We lived for love and lust and beauty..."
Of all things to get, in a collage way, sent to the principal's office for! A 16th century poem!
College education is obviously being wasted. Neither "Elizabeth" nor "Shakespeare in Love" is set in Victorian England. Victorian England is so named because Victoria was queen--from 1837 to 1901. "Elizabeth" and "Shakespeare in Love" are both set in Elizabethan England (would it be redundant to say, duh!), which spanned from 1558 to 1603.
But hey, what's 300 years more or less? BTW, Veronica Franco lived from 1546 to 1591, so yes, in the same time period as the other people/characters/films.
It's not well-known, but "Land Girls" is another terrific Catherine McCormick film; it also stars Rachel Weisz (I worked on the closed-captioning for it some years back). Check it out if you have the chance!
shareI agree with you guys. Catherine is very underrated. She has looks plus talent, which is a very hard to find gem these days in the film industry!
shareI first saw Catherine in Spy Game and did not like her there because she was sort of dishonest to her boyfriend, but this movie is really good and I like her a lot. Especially the way she looked at Marco after his cousin hit her. I like the scenes where Marco was tortured by his own thoughts as he saw her worked as a courtesan.
shareWhat? Blaming the actor for something the character does is a bit... odd? Blame the President, the Pope, or God, but not Catherine!
And... she doesn't "sort-of" cheat on "Terry" at all. Watch the first bedroom scene, the phone goes, Doumet says... "It's Nathan, he's arrived, can you get here"
Then Elizabeth says in a perfect five-thirty-after-a-night-of-passion voice... "What's wrong?" and Terry says "Israeli troops in the Bekka"
which is an absolute fib, isn't it? Then comes the restaurant scene where EH is happy at first, then serious, then angry and then outside is absolutely furious. Catherine has to display all these emotions, and does so superbly, it is as if it really happened and there just happened to be a camera to record it. Then Terry comes to the apartment. EH glares at him. He says, contritely "My name is Tom" (This is one of the best Pitt films ever, much better than Inglourious Basterds) After a second or so, EH gives a tiny smile. Perfect. That scene might have continued like this... Tom goes in, sits down, says quietly and slowly,
"I met Nathan in 'Nam, I was a sniper... later, in Berlin he offered me a different sort of job, clandestine stuff, I went East a lot"
EH "Did you kill people?"
TB after a pause... "Not ... directly"
EH "He asked me how I slept!, if I'd known what you've just said, I could have asked him the same".
TB "We... have... parallels..."
No more talking, their hands touch, their eyes meet.
But oddly, the next scene, the morning after, both appear to be having second thoughts?
The description "virtuosity of expression" has been used for other actors. CM too, in Spy Game, Dangerous Beauty, The Land Girls, This Year's Love. But not Magic in the Moonlight, which is missable.
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...it's a whole lot harder to shine.... than undermine.
The Land Girls is now on UT.
I rated it a 10 too, ie, as well as Dangerous Beauty, and This Year's Love.
hi,
...it's a whole lot harder to shine.... than undermine.
Catherine McCormack looked so freakin' good looking in this movie. I think she's a nice looking woman anyways, but she was ridiculously beautiful in this.
"The saddest thing in life is wasted talent."