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I?d like to nominate the fabulously beautiful Italian starlet Monica Bellucci as my woman of the week. She?s this week?s Sunday Times mag centre spread, where she?s interviewed by an (understandably) besotted Brian Appleyard. If you can?t put a face to the name, she was the treacherous virtual mistress of the malevolent computer program in ?The Matrix Part 2? (hourglass figure, very elegant and very tight, cream suit) the lady who introduces Neo to ?The Keymaker.? She also appeared in Coppola?s ?Dracula? as one of the evil Count?s demonically sensual concubines. Monica is no Hollywood airhead and is not at all temped by the trashy, vacuous, celebrity scene. Though she has been offered many parts that would take her in that direction. She?s an elegant, sophisticated woman in the finest ?Old Europe? tradition. Lovely.

Officer Dibble ? he? made his mind up what he wants for Christmas!

Have u seen her in "Irreversible?"....a fantastic ,if not disturbing movie told in reverse..the rape scene in it goes on for about 10 mins with a fixed camera shot..u actually feel guilty watching it..very powerful

Tez

"I didnt come in ya Pete"

No, but it was mentioned in the interview - apparently, a number of those present at the film festival where is was shown walked out in the middle of the scene. Though whether this was through politically correct pretentiousness and ponciness, or whether they simply could not stomach it was not made clear. I'll look out for the movie (Irreversible) is it on DVD? Monica is also starring in Mel Gibson?s latest biblical movie, due out soon.

Officer Dibble

There was a fair amount of controversy when the film was released, and I think the majority of the reaction was for the latter reason. Rape is often covered in tasteful cuts in films and on TV, but Irreversible apparently didn't make allowances for the sensibilities of the audience and left them as mute witnesses to the whole horrific crime. Probably hypocritical for someone who enjoys porn films to say, but I'm not sure I could sit through such a scene myself.

On a happier note, I didn't realise she was one of the lurvely ladies in Dracula. The only thing in that movie more ridiculous than Keanu's accent was the notion that any man would try to escape three such lovelies---especially as they were draining blood from his major veins

Caractacus wrote:
> Rape is often covered in tasteful cuts in films
> and on TV, but Irreversible apparently didn't make allowances
> for the sensibilities of the audience and left them as mute
> witnesses to the whole horrific crime. Probably hypocritical
> for someone who enjoys porn films to say, but I'm not sure I
> could sit through such a scene myself.
Can't see how- unless one were a fan of the 'rape-porn' subgenre.

I suppose what I meant was that by tabloid standards I ought to be used to watching sexual scenes. The media doesn't make the distinction between stuff involving consenting adults and emotionally-charged scenes of sexual assault, with all the pain that would involve. One day I'm going to learn to say what I think in worms that fulk can unerstun.

Tying in with the above, and the thread concerning Janet Jackson and the traumatised Septics: as a child, I recall an ITV drama set in the second world war called Manhunt. One episode involved the female lead, the lovely Cyd Hayman, being interrogated by a Gestapo officer and forced to strip. The fact that I remember that so clearly is not because of the flesh on show (Shabby/Shaggy Tiger with Pru Gee a few years later gave more than enough of that!), but the sense of cruelty involved, and the revulsion I felt at someone having the power to do that. I'll never understand the kick people get out of having that power, and for that I'm glad. Empathy is all about seeing yourself in a victim, feeling the pain they feel, and wanting it to stop. Rapists and child abusers are the lowest form of life---and putting your own desires (not needs, desires) above someone else's life or wellbeing is the worst form of misanthropy.

Sorry, I'm really on a roll tonight

I recall that Manhunt scene, too: and had a very different reaction at the time ! Cyd Hayman has to be one of the ALL-time babes (with Pru Gee a close second)........blame it on adolescent hormones, but I found it intensely erotic at the time- although my reaction might well differ were I to view it now (the tape is probably in a skip in Wood Lane, though.....). The analogous scene in Schindler's List, on the other hand, filled me with revulsion in a similar way to your reaction to Manhunt.
Like the fashion industry making women look like fools, I sometimes wonder if TV drama isn't all commissioned by rabid misogynists- or is it an example of the feminists' agenda to portray all males as rapists at least in thought, if not deed?

I suppose to some women we are all rapists---at least potentially. This is one of the subject areas where my inner fascist takes over and I start making Dibble look left wing. In spite of not being able to carry out the sentence myself, my hinterior Hitler wants serial rapists and child abusers not only to be castrated with rusty barbed wire, but then forced to eat the removed items.

I know, I know---removing the knackers isn't going to remove the desire to perform such deeds.

Caractacus wrote:
> I suppose to some women we are all rapists---at least potentially.
And children are being taught that every street-corner harbours a posse of paedos. All part of our increasingly risk-averse attitude- one which leads to the logical nonsense of 'extreme bactericide', actually further endangering by preventing the appropriate immune-response development.
> This is one of the subject areas where my inner fascist takes over and I start making Dibble look left wing.
In two words: 'Im-possible'.

Okay, so maybe I went a bit too far there