Penélope Cruz

Paul Julian Smith notes that Penélope Cruz won her fame abroad, through the victimised nun in Almodóvar's All About My Mother. Xan Brooks records that in Vanilla Sky, the American remake of Open Your Eyes, she repeats her role from Amenábar's original, which puts the same character twice in her hands. Peter Matthews looks instead at what the camera does with her in Volver: she is raised to the rank of household goddess even while washing up, as the director's camera peers down into the sink and feasts on her cleavage, and the swelling false derrière is not neglected either. By his account she also lip-syncs a tango classic at a party with tears in her eyes.