So, Tilda Swinton often plays so kooky that it's easy to forget what an insanely gorgeous, sensual woman she is. One of the arresting scenes in movies from the last several years for me is the scene in Michael Clayton where she's sweating through her dress shirt. It's rare that a movie would show a man sweating through clothing from stress, rather than intense, manly physical exertion, and almost inconceivable that a woman would be shown that way. She made the character physically and morally clammy. It was an impressive bit of acting. But the trailer for I Am Love is a useful reminder of her appeal:
It looks like an impressive transformation, and that's actually her speaking Italian throughout the movie, rather than a dub. My sense of the particularity of language is such that I have a hard time imagining being able to truly imagine uttering words that don't have deep and particular meanings for you. Amor doesn't mean the same thing to me as love. But then, there's a reason (or, er, many reasons) Tilda Swinton is a mesmerizing, chameleon-like actress and I'm a nerdy pop culture blogger.