Dolce & Gabbana describe this video as “revealing the provocative yet effortless femininity of the eternal diva.” Effortless? They must not have watched the video, then again, my assumption is they aren’t referring to Scarlett Johansson as that “diva” only that she is pretending to be the “eternal diva”.
Titled “The One” and directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino (he directed “Human Nature” video) I personally look at it as a mess no matter what the point of it is supposed to be. The only thing it did as far as I’m concerned is remind me that Scarlett Johansson has never lived up to any kind of real promise as an actress.
I guess the biggest question is to ask if Scarlett is playing herself in this piece? Playing an actress? Playing an actress playing an actress? Or playing an actress, playing an actress who is an actress that has lost all identity and can’t connect with even the most basic of emotions? I lean toward the latter, but at the same time am wondering if that may not mean she’s still playing herself.
Thinking back over her career the first time I remember seeing her was in Lost in Translation where she had, as far as I was concerned, a solid breakout performance. She had been in a few films prior to that, such as The Horse Whisperer, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Ghost World, but as far as I can tell Lost in Translation was her coming out moment.
From there, outside of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I can’t say any one performance was memorable and Barcelona was only memorable for me primarily because she fit Woody Allen’s project so well, and for that matter she turned in good work in both Scoop and Match Point before that. The question is, however, what kind of actress is Johansson?
In talking with Vogue, David Fincher felt she was too sexy for the lead role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo saying, “[The] thing with Scarlett is, you can’t wait for her to take her clothes off.” Is that what she’s come to?
I only ask because at one point there seemed to be promise and now, not so much.
She does have Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo on the horizon, but I tend to feel had this film been released five years ago people would be wondering if she’d get an Oscar nomination for the part. I haven’t heard any such talk this year and can guarantee The Avengers won’t warrant such talk next year, especially after what we saw in Iron Man 2.
