Word: elfin
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...altogether different place. In 1995, McKenzie won twin Australian Film Institute Awards for the movie Angel Baby and TV series Halifax f.p., playing a schizophrenic and a murder suspect with multiple personality disorder, respectively. If anyone had the monopoly over damaged souls and troubled teens it was McKenzie. The elfin actress first broke hearts as the little girl lost in a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads in Romper Stomper (1992), and proved the perfect Ophelia in Neil Armfield's acclaimed 1994 production of Hamlet. But when that play toured, her role was taken over by Cate Blanchett...
...sigh?is to direct our glance to all the fabulous women in the cast. The camera, mainly manned by Christopher Doyle, prowls around the women like a lover in the first flush of passion. It captures and caresses the actresses' radiance: Lau's bold sensuality, Faye Wong's elfin resiliency, Gong Li's fragile hauteur. Zhang, in a panoply of pouts, flirtations and surrendering smiles, is at her most ravishing and nuanced, especially when swathed in the spectacular cheongsams of costumer designer (and editor and production designer) William Chang...
...Despite plot twists that strain credulity, the film works, thanks mostly to Zhao's soulful performance as a cop torn between love, duty and motherhood. With her elfin stature, Zhao couldn't intimidate a jaywalker, but her convincing portrayal confirms her status as one of China's best actresses. Goddess's real success is its rewarding fusion of mainstream mainland actors with Hong Kong indie vision, pointing the way for future cross-border collaborations. When Zhao and Tse exchange smoldering glances (and occasional gunfire), one country, two systems never looked so good...
...Doting audiences have seen Zhao grow from elfin youth to cagey comedian. In the international hit Shaolin Soccer she plays a shy baker with an extravagant case of eczema who shaves her head, pulls some nifty martial-arts moves and wins the match, the guy and, in the film's last scene, the cover of TIME. In My Dream Girl, a ripoff of Pygmalion, she's a ragamuffin (but still quite a muffin) who elevates silliness into a showcase for urchin charm. She ranged further in two films she made with Jiang Wen: He Ping's Warriors of Heaven...
...might be tempted to describe Lee Bontecou as elfin. There's no denying that she's small and lean. And when she tilts forward to tell you, "I'm shy," you can take it to the bank. At 72 she has the same Dutch-boy haircut that she had four decades ago, when she was dynamiting a place for herself in the New York art world. Back then she must have reminded people of the writer Carson McCullers, who would have seemed pixieish only until you read...