There was a point and time when Sophie Marceau seemed like she was going to be a breakout star and explode onto the scene in a burst of wonder and elegant fashion, but while she did make her way onto the big screen and managed to remain there for a while it seems pertinent to state that only a few people could possibly name that many films in which they’ve seen her. Yes there are fans that would obviously be able to name more than the two films listed below, but given that these two films really stood the chance of making or breaking her, it’s still enough to say that she managed to be one of the best parts of each one.
For a young woman that didn’t think her modeling career was going to go anywhere she certainly went further than she believed possible. That’s a good thing to be honest since it’s hard to imagine now if another woman had been put into her place in the following films.
Braveheart
Just for now let’s try to forget that the film that was based upon William Wallace was that horribly inaccurate and enjoy the film the way it was. Historians will no doubt want to dwell on that fact, as will fans that simply want to follow what they believe is the truth. But the film itself and the story was something that was quite enticing and more than a little inspiring. Sophie’s part as Princess Isabella, then Queen Isabella, was quite compelling as she was in many ways out of her element in coming to England and having to deal with the many barbarous ways she had to contend with. Prima Nocta was only one of them, but it was such an affront to women that one might have believed it was better to die than to allow a man that was not a woman’s husband to lay with her. Unfortunately history tells us that such things did happen and that the world was a very unkind place back in those days. But all in all, the story, and the film, allowed her to convey a sense of outrage and quiet suffering that was hard to ignore.
Again, keeping the actual history part out of it, her part was so important that if it had been left out the movie would have been quite different and perhaps not as inspiring. After all the William Wallace portrayed by Gibson was a man that was a fierce and unrelenting warrior, but he was also a lover that had more than a touch of honor about him. If not for Sophie’s character he would have been little more than a strategically-minded savage in the eyes of many.
The World is Not Enough
Did anyone fall for Elektra being an innocent woman? If so then you probably haven’t seen enough Bond films to know that the women in these films are either incredibly deceptive or just as hard to read as anyone until they deliver one specific tell, which is different for all of them. But the biggest reason that you don’t trust many of the women in Bond films is that you simply don’t know which one of them are on your side and which ones are out to kill you. And given that Bond is such a sucker for a pretty face at times, and vice versa, it becomes a dangerous game in which telling the cat and the mouse apart is quite difficult. Sophie played a seductress that believed she was untouchable and rightly so for the most part, at least until she decided to underestimate Bond and his most unlikely allies. That’s the mistake that many individuals have made to their chagrin, and the endpoint for the villain in any Bond film. It was a bit surprising that Bond would shoot a woman point blank in cold blood, but he had already warned her, and she had no intention of giving up.
Sometimes the ugly things done in movies do have a moment of justification that some don’t like, even if they can agree it would be necessary.
Sophie managed to do many other movies and was working up until 2015 it seems. Whether she stepped away for a break or for something else is hard to say but the chances seem good that she might be seen again either on screen or behind the camera at one point. At this time her bio says that she’s still an active actor so perhaps she’s just taking some personal time and going to make a comeback eventually when it’s the right time. There’s no denying that making movies can create a very hectic schedule and can wreak havoc with one’s personal life. So perhaps we’ll see her again soon, in one fashion or another.
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