Ursula Andress (1936 - )
Ursula Andress in Dr No (1962) (The combination of sea, shells, and a stunning blonde has led some critics to trace the inspiration for this scene to Botticelli's The Birth of Venus).
In one of cinema's most famous moments, Ursula Andress emerged seductively from the sea and caused bikini sales to skyrocket. Sean Connery was just an unknown actor when chosen to star as James Bond by producers Saltzman and Broccoli, but Dr No was so successful that 007 is still going strong today. So sexy is the Ursula Andress character Honey Ryder, that she regularly tops Bond girl polls even now. --http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/S/sexy/results_10-1_2.html [Nov 2004]
Biography
Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is an actress. She was born in Ostermundigen, Berne, Switzerland.
Andress was a major sex symbol of the 1960s. Fluent in English, French, Italian, German and Swiss-German, she appeared as "Honey Ryder", James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first James Bond film.
Her stunning good looks served her well, as her introduction in Dr. No became one of the most famous Bond moments. Rising out of the Caribbean Sea singing a beautiful Calypso and tossing back her blonde hair, she spots Bond. "What are you doing here?" she asks. "Looking for shells?"
"No," replies Bond, admiring her suntanned body barely covered in a white bikini, "I'm just looking." (The combination of sea, shells, and a stunning blonde has led some critics to trace the inspiration for this scene to Botticelli's Birth of Venus).
An homage to this scene was included in the Bond film, Die Another Day. This time around the part of the siren walking out of the water was played by Halle Berry. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Andress [May 2005]
La Decima vittima / 10th Victim (1965) - Elio Petri
La Decima vittima / 10th Victim (1965) - Elio Petri [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
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Long before reality shows took over the TV airwaves and violent parodies like Series 7 and Battle Royale hit international screens, Elio Petri made this campy social satire of a future in which the bored, the ambitious, and the just plain violent can sign up for a deadly game of cat and mouse. "The Big Hunt is necessary as a social safety valve," explains one TV personality. "Why control births when we can control deaths?" Marcello Mastroianni, who plays the womanizing Italian media darling with a gift for ingenious assassinations, becomes the target of sexy champion Ursula Andress, a New York Amazon with a wardrobe as deadly as it is chic. She'll pocket $1 million if she can successfully kill Mastroianni, her 10th and last victim, but on the side she concocts a deal to do the deed in concert with a live song-and-dance extravaganza mounted by a tea company.
Directed with tongue firmly in cheek, Petri lampoons the whole media obsession with high-risk contests and games of chance with cool style, absurdly chic fashions, a bouncy score of organ riffs and funky lounge sounds, and a comically blasé performance by Mastroianni. It's like Fellini gone ballistic with a hint of Divorce, Italian Style: a battle of the sexes in a world where spontaneous shootouts are forever erupting in the fringes of the frame. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
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