Kate Winslet appears more like an Indian woman to me.
She is a little bit fatty and yet sexually appealing with an exquisite feminine grace. She has large shoulders and a big body with a very lusty sounding voice. She appears to be decided and firm in her opinions.
You have to see her feminine grace in the ’’Holy smoke’’. This film is again a little bit controversial like the film ’’Jude’’ which was extremely controversial. She has a natural talent to act in films with ’’classic’’ qualities and that is the reason for her success in Titanic. The modern skinny, pale voiced , confused looking , new generation young lady role do not really ’’fit in’’ with Kate Winslet.
She wears a sari in ’’Holy Smoke’’. It is a wonderful movie to see. In this story an Australian woman (unmarried) comes to India and finds a ’’guru’’. She goes in to trance when a guru looks in to her eyes and then on she develops a devotion to gods (Bhakti ) as a medium to know herself. This Bhakti could not be understood by her Australian mother or father or relatives and thinks that she was ’’drugged’’ by Indians because she was constantly in a peaceful state of mind and do not smoke and do not drink and to cap it all she was keeping all those photos of Lord Shiva etc., on the walls. Sits on the bed instead of on the chairs, puts thilakam or bindi on forehead and a blouse and sari which they do not understand. At one time one of her cousins tries to pull out her sari and she reacts like an Indian woman and feels terribly insulted. This “feeling” confuses her family members much more !!!
They use a psychiatrist to break her. But this leads to a terrible confusion and helplessness in the mind of Kate to understand life. As a result of these psychiatric tricks and constant “suggestions” and treatment Kate winslest takes off her sari, dries it on an electric pole and stands naked and even urinates on her legs standing!!
But the most unbelievable scenes are in the film ’’JUDE”.
You have to see to believe it and kids can not see it. In this film in a scene Kate Winslet lies on her back on a bed completely naked! . The hero completely naked shown from back.
note:= I have removed two lines here as a part of editing .( I have edited this review as a member felt that she was caught unawares of the content of the review-- read the comments section ) .
In this film at a stage in the story the hero (Christopher Eccleston) holds her hand and brings her to the priest of the church for a marriage of Kate. It means the hero has played as her father. But what followed later on (at later stage in the story) was that the Hero finally marries Kate Winslet !!. In fact by relation she was his sister cousin. They became out cast by this union. Later on a son (about 8 years) from his first marriage kills all his daughters (two daughters aged 4 and 2 years) from Kate Winslet and commits suicide. This theme is built on unholy relationships and god taking revenge etc. and it was based on Thomas Hardy’s novel. There were stories of a church bishop throwing the book in to fire (after quietly reading it ).
Though kids can not see this film ’’JUDE’’ it has its own worth. Kate could bring forth the the culmination of guilt complex, her mechanical , helpless response to sex, her desire to retain her husband finally leading to the tragedy. I do not believe any other actress could have done justice to the film.
Yet another film which I liked the most was ’’Iris’’. It is an academy award winner and like Titanic the old woman (when Winslet becomes old) was played by Judy Dench and she acted extremely well. The success of the film shall go to her and the most interesting aspect is that somehow we do not feel that the old woman was not different woman altogether but Kate Winslet , herself , who became old!! .
The film called ’’Quills’’ was funny in the beginning and later on horrible. It depicts a writer whose freedom of expression could not be killed by any type of state authority that hides its face behind hypocrisy . It is the natural tendency of victorian age society to hide its face behind secret walls of hypocrisy. Every one secretly reads the author’s books which are full of graphical description of unbridled sex.
Kate plays as a maid servant in jail ( actually a mental hospital ) who secretly carries the writings of the author. Here also in the last scene Kate acts nude as a dead body which was outraged (horrible act of sex with a dead body) by psychologically torn up friend of the author and lover of Kate who was in state of mental delirium.
’’Holy smoke’’ like ’’Iris’’ is one of the best films to see if you are a viewer of philosophical, meaningful pictures. In ’’Holy Smoke’’ her acting was superb. She behaves and looks like an Indian woman and if anyone watching her would be sure to think that she was an Indian actress. She shows her confusion once she loses her Bhakti in a natural way and you hardly feel she was acting.
No doubt she was nominated for Oscars at least four times and she was a stage actress for many Shakespeare stories.
She was an actress even as a ten year old child and now at 30 years with world fame for her credit , she is still at a beginning.
She is not skinny and she has a peaceful look of an Indian middle aged woman but this was not suitable for many roles in Hollywood. At one point of time she lived on one apple a day until she began to faint several times in a day and reverted back to her natural style of eating.
Kate Winslet has a great feature. She need not have to worry about her big stomach and wide shoulders and a chubby, wide face.
In fact in a magazine when a photo of her was published in which she looked skinny and with a skinny elongated belly, she had most surprisingly objected ! She simply expressed her dislike for photo tricks.
I wish her all the best.