CAREFUL, MR. BOND

Spotlight

FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS

Berenice Marlohe enters the world of James Bond at a key moment in its history: the next installment, Skyfall, set for a fall release, marks the 50th anniversary of the stylish and highly re_munerative franchise that debuted with Sean Connery as 007 in Dr. No. The Parisian actress-model finds herself in the good hands of A-list director Sam Mendes, who promises "a lot of action" after a career (and a marriage to Kate Winslet) that has seen him excel at bringing domestic misery to the screen with American Beauty (1999) and Revolutionary Road (2008). She also finds herself in very good thespian company, among a cast that includes Daniel Craig (in his third outing as Bond), Dame Judi Dench (playing "M" for the seventh time), and the illustrious Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, and Albert Finney. Marlohe steamed up French television screens when she appeared in a love scene wearing nothing but a red wig on the show Equipe Medicale d'Urgence. At age 33, with a husky voice slightly north of Betty Bacall's, a killer accent, and a substantial build, she is no gamine. Unlike previous femmes de Bond, Marlohe's does not have a double-entendre-ish name. She is, simply, Severine. To prepare for the film, which was budgeted at a reported $150 million, the actress underwent serious firearms training. Preview footage shows her in a black dress with fur cuffs. Such clues add up to suggest that Severine is someone whom everyone's favorite M.1.6 secret agent would avoid, if only he allowed logic to guide his romantic life. Thankfully, the Bond-ian tendency to allow the head and the heart to be spun by dangerous women is as essential to the character as the shaken martini and the license to kill.

JIM WINDOLF