Probably one of the better examples of the femme fatale in the movies, Charlotte Rampling evoked the Swinging Sixties — the last few years thereof at any rate — as much as anyone.
It helped that she was, and still is, a brilliant actress — equally fluent in French and English — and so has never had to get by just by showing off her body.
Although she was never shy about that, either:
And in color:
Add to that a glorious, sexy contralto like Lauren Bacall’s…
…which means (like Bacall) pure sex appeal at any age.
And then there’s that “showing off the body” thing:
“I generally don’t make films to entertain people. I choose the parts that challenge me to break through my own barriers. A need to devour, punish, humiliate or surrender seems to be a primal part of human nature, and it’s certainly a big part of sex. To discover what normal means, you have to surf a tide of weirdness.”
Rampling has been a personal favorite of mine for ages. Oddly, when the wife and I are surfing the channels for something to watch, there are two female cast members who will always cause a hard “no” from the wife, and one of them is Ms. Rampling. I wonder if Rampling’s particular sex appeal and charm is a negative for all women or just my wife. (The wife’s other hard no is Tilda Swinton, by the way, again for reasons that are opaque to me. Super skinny women, perhaps?) Come to think of it, since the wife is asleep just now, it may be a time to stream “The Night Porter” again.
I will speak my heresy for the moment.
Like Ms. Bacall, I just don’t think she’s pretty at all. I just don’t get the attraction … until she speaks.
And just like her American version, her voice and attitude seems to make her incredibly sexy.
It is voice and attitude that make pretty women beautiful.
You forgot a photo of Ms Rampling in the museum.
Cancel my ‘guy card’, I guess, but she looks like one of the few female stars that I’d rather talk to than screw (excluding the very old). Her face is interesting as well as beautiful.