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Angelina Jolie was
born in Los Angeles on June 4, 1975 as Angelina
Jolie Voight. Her father is the Oscar winning actor
Jon Voight, her mother the actress Marcheline
Bertrand.
Angelina made her film debut at the tender age of
five by the side of her parents in Hal Ashby's
comedy Lookin' to Get Out. Her parents
separated and later divorced. Angelina grew up with
her mother in London, New York and Los Angeles
At 11, Angelina moved
to New York where she took classes at the famous Lee
Strasberg Theatre Institute. At 16, she worked as a
professional model. She also took film classes at
New York University and acted there in a number of
stage plays. But soon, she decided to move to Los
Angeles where she played in the Met Theatre Group.
In 1993 came Angelina's second film part, a
supporting role in Cyborg II: Glass Shadow
where she acted as a man-machine hybrid. Two years
later, she acted in Hackers. She played - you
guessed it - a hacker. The movie got terrible
reviews but Angelina's performance earned some
praise. On the set, she met Johnny Lee Miller who,
later, became her husband for 19 months. Johnny is
best known for his part in the cult movie
Trainspotting.
Angelina appeared in the Rolling Stones' video
Anybody Seen My Body which made her known to a
wider audience. She shot a few other music videos,
e.g. with Lenny Kravitz. In the TV movie George
Wallace Angelina played Cornelia Wallace, a part
which earned her an Emmy nomination and even a
Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress.
Among her weaker
movies is Without Evidence from 1995, in
which she played for the first time a serious part
as a drug-addicted teenager. In Foxfire,
1996, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates,
Angelina was the boss of a small-town girl's gang.
It was no memorable performance either. The love
story comedy Love Is All There Is of the same
year will not go down in the annals of the history
of cinema. In Playing God, Angelina played a
gangster bride at the side of X-Files star
David Duchovny.
In 1998 came another highlight of Angelina Jolie's
career, her leading role in the HBO-drama Gia.
She convinced as a drug-addicted, bisexual mannequin
with Aids. As Gia Carangi, Angelina was praised by
critics and the public alike. Gia won her a
Golden Globe as Best Actress as well as another Emmy
nomination.
n Playing by Heart Angelina Jolie was part of
an impressive cast including Sean Connery, Gena
Rowlands, Anthony Edwards, Gillian Anderson, Ryan
Phillippe and Madeline Stowe. Afterwards, the
National Board of Review announced Angelina as Best
New Actress.
In Pushing Tin, Angelina Jolie had a
supporting role as the wife of Billy Bob Thornton.
He became her real-life husband in 2000 (by the way:
for Thornton, it is the fifth marriage). In
Pushing Tin, even the quartet including John
Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Kate Blanchett and
Angelina Jolie could not save the movie which was a
flop, both artistically and financially.
In 1999 in Bone Collector Angelina played a
tough policewoman at the side of Denzel Washington
in search of a serial killer. It was her first
leading role in a cinema movie.
Still in 1999, another highlight of her career
followed with the psychological drama Girl,
Interrupted. In Susanna Kaysen's
autobiographical bestseller, Angelina shone as a
patient of a nerve clinic up to the point that it
earned her a Golden Globe and even an Oscar as Best
Supporting Actress. The film was intended to give a
boost to Winona Ryder's career. Instead, Angelina
made a great step forward.
In the year-2000
action movie Gone in Sixty Seconds, Angelina
starred at the side of Nicolas Cage who played her
former boyfriend. They are former car thieves who
have to come out of retirement in order to save the
life of Nicolas' brother. In 50 days, they must
steal 50 cars. This is very likely a film of which
Angelina is not very proud.
Lara Croft -
Tomb Raider
Angelina
Jolie's latest movie, Lara Croft - Tomb Raider,
is making film history. Not because it is a subtle
and ambitious form of cinema, but because it is a
mix of Indiana Jones and James Bond with a woman in
the leading role. Moreover, it is already the most
successful film to date based on a video game
character.
One does not have to know the video game in order to
understand the movie. Considering that Simon West,
who has made the unutterable Con Air, directs
Tomb Raider, one must acknowledge that he has
created an action film which is entertaining from
the beginning to the end. The pleasure watching it
would of course be greater had he given actors as
great as Daniel Craig (in the role of Alex Marrs)
the opportunity to show what they are able to do.
With a film based on a computer game, one expects
the worst. But surprisingly, almost all digital
effects are credible. And Angelina Jolie adds a lot
to the film's success. The role of Lara Croft seems
to be tailor-made for her. She does no artificial
Asian martial-arts. If Angelina hits, she hits hard.
Her fighting scenes are quite realistic. This is
clearly the beginning of a series of films with a
female super-hero. Indiana Jones and James Bond will
seriously be challenged by the supposedly weaker
sex.
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider is about the
daughter of the archaeologist Lord Croft who
mysteriously died in 1985. His daughter, Lara,
herself a passionate tomb raider who names photo
journalism as her official profession - she has of
course already won several Pulitzer Prizes - knows
no financial difficulties and lives in a monumental
country house in England.
In the opening scene, Lara is fighting a giant
insect-like machine which seems to be out of a
science fiction movie. At the end of the action, one
learns that she had to fight a robot made by a
computer freak named Bryce (Noah Taylor) who works
for her. In fact, the fight is part of her work-out
routine.
The following night, Lara is disturbed by a hidden
clock in her house. In it, she finds a riddle by her
father. She rapidly finds the clues to understand it
and learns that thousands of years ago, a substance
came to Earth which was formed into a "Triangle of
Light" that gives incredible power to the person who
controls it. A priest understood its dangers and
broke it in pieces. Only every 5000 years, when all
the planets are in one line in a total solar
eclipse, can one use its powers again - of course
only if one has all the Triangle's pieces.
You may have guessed it, the next total solar
eclipse is near. The secret and evil society of the
"Illuminati" knows about the "Triangle of Light" and
tries to get hold of its pieces. Lara of course has
to fight them. At the same time, she hopes to meet
her father again because the Triangle gives the
power to turn back time. Lord Croft is played by
Angelina's real-life father Jon Voight (who left her
mother when Angelina was young). This fact ads some
flavor to a plot which is of course designed for
younger movie-goers.
Despite some weaknesses, the film is never boring. A
poetic-scene in which Lara Croft is doing some
bungee-ballet in her monumental dining hall - a
stunt entirely performed by Angelina Jolie - is one
of the movie's highlights. The bungee-ballet is
interrupted by a flying squad of the "Illuminati"
who try to steal Lara's part of the Triangle. The
peaceful ballet changes into a great action scene.
For more details about Lara Croft - Tomb Raider,
which was shot in locations in England, Venice, the
temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia as well as in
Iceland, you have to go to your nearest cinema.
Awards won
by Angelina Jolie
2000
ShoWest, Best Supporting Actress for Girl
Interrupted.
1999 Oscar, Best Supporting Actress for Girl
Interrupted.
1999 Screen Actors Guild, Best Supporting Actress
for Girl Interrupted.
1999 Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress for
Girl Interrupted.
1998 Screen Actors Guild, Best Actress (in a TV
movie or a mini-series) for Gia.
1998 Golden Globe, Best Actress in a TV movie or a
mini-series for Gia.
1998 Golden Satellite, Best Actress in a TV movie or
a mini-series for Gia.
1998 National Board of Review, Breakthrough
Performance for Playing by Heart.
1997 Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress in a TV
movie or a mini-series for George Wallace. |
