‘Love and sexuality is a question of energy, not age,’ says Monica Bellucci in an interview. 

On the Milky Road, a love tale set during the Balkan War, stars Bellucci. In this interview, she discusses trusting directors, portraying a Bond girl, and why age is only a number with Kaleem Aftab. 

“I’m shy; imagine what I’d be like if I wasn’t shy!” exclaims the vivacious Monica Bellucci following the screening of her new film On the Milky Road at the San Sebastian Film Festival. 

Bellucci is the Italian beauty who is making a joke of the notion that at a certain age, actors can no longer portray the love interest or the seductive. Last year, at the age of 50, she became the oldest woman to impress James Bond, and now, in Emir Kusturica’s On The Milky Road, set during the Balkan conflict, Bellucci portrays the fanciful love interest of the director’s Serbian milkman. 

The video includes a guy who goes bananas at the sight of Bellucci, which has obviously been the case since she began modeling as a 13-year-old. He even risks a warlord’s fury to be with her. An experience that French bad boy Vincent Cassel, who married his co-star after meeting her on the set of The Apartment in 1996, can relate to. This film also confirmed Bellucci’s transition from the catwalk to the big screen. The actress was nominated for a Cesar Award for her work as a theater actress whose relationship is destroyed by her closest friend. 

She is most well-known for her performance in Gasper Noe’s time-bending rape revenge thriller Irreversible, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and made headlines across the globe for its horrifying 9-minute rape scene. It was yet another part she shared with Cassel, with whom she had two children. When the couple divorced in 2013, it sparked Brangelina-like responses in Paris, where Bellucci now resides. 

She is fluent in four languages and has played parts in French, Italian, English, and Farsi. Her most well-known roles in the United States were bored wife Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ. 

So she was taken aback when Kusturica, a two-time Palme d’Or winner, requested her to speak Serb: “I needed to have a [voice]coach with me all the time,” Bellucci adds, “since I had to learn what I had to say [phonetically].” On set, there was a lot of improvisation since Emir utilized the screenplay as a guideline and then things may alter a lot with him.” 

She claims that the director believed in her more than she did. “When Emir offered me the film, I remarked to him, you do realize the entire picture is in Serb, but he replied, ‘you can do it,'” she recalls, referring to filmmakers who have encouraged her to explore beyond the box. How do they know this? As in the case of Sam Mendes’ Spectre. It’s not every day that a lady of 50 years old gets to be a Bond girl. And now I’ve just completed a job in Mozart in the Jungle in which I play an opera singer, which I’ve never done before, so sometimes directors look farther.” 

Mendes, for one, believed Bellucci would be ideal because she had “mystery and depth…I simply thought Monica Bellucci made sense for the plot, the ages of the individuals we’re dealing with, and she has an extraordinary seductive presence in life and in the film.” 

On the Milky Road took four years to complete due to Kusturica’s use of a series of special effects that accentuate the magical realism components, which he blends with his customary cacophony of loud music and outrageous escapades. The film begins with a fantastic opening montage that depicts the chaos of battle with bleeding animals, most notably pigs heads and geese, with troops firing from all sides, against whom and for what reason is unclear. 

Despite the fact that the film is set against the background of the Balkan War, it is mostly forgotten as the love tale develops. Bellucci and the film emphasize human drama above any political message that others may seek. “I’ve lived in this region of beauty and pain for four years, but I approached this project from a human and artistic standpoint, not a political one.” 

“It’s very tough for us to make a judgment on what occurred over there,” Bellucci says. I met so many individuals, and people who had gone through so much, that the film, although set during the Balkan conflict from 1990 to 1994, is not inherently a political picture. Despite the brutality, it remains a romantic and surreal universe with a love tale about two grown individuals who have gone through so much. For me, this video demonstrates that love and sexuality are a function of energy rather than age.” 

Indeed, for the actress, experience is becoming more appealing. “And occasionally I meet people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s who are simply fantastic,” she says. Some guys as well. I remember working with Helmut Newton when he was 81, and we were enjoying this experience together, and it was simply incredible, full of vitality. He is a remarkable dude. I admire men who have gone through a lot in their life and have come out on top. These males are really gorgeous, regardless of their age.” 

Bellucci recently made waves for appearing naked in a swimming pool for Paris Match, as if to make the point of her sexuality not shrinking and apparently obliterating her own declaration of being a timid person. She claims she agreed to perform the shoot because “I like doing it.” I’m from the fashion industry, and I like photographs.” 

Bellucci, on the other hand, may be evasive when she wants to be. When asked about her upcoming appearance in the highly anticipated Twin Peaks reboot, Bellucci smiles, raises her palm to her lips, and clasps her fingers, indicating she will remain silent. I doubt a nice cup of coffee or a slice of cherry pie will entice her to say anything else. It seems that the shyness appears only when it is convenient for Bellucci. 

On The Milky Road will be shown at the London Film Festival on October 15 and 16. The London Film Festival will run from October 5 to October 16.