From the brilliant film historian and critic David Thomson, a book that
reinvents the star biography in a singularly illuminating portrait of
Nicole Kidman--and what it means to be a top actress today. At once life
story, love letter, and critical analysis, this is not merely a book
about who Kidman is but about what she is--in our culture and in our
minds, on- and offscreen.
Tall, Australian, one of the striking beauties of the world, Nicole
Kidman is that rare modern phenomenon--an authentic movie star who is as
happy and as creative throwing a seductive gaze from some magazine cover
as she is being Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Here is the story of how
this actress began her career, has grown through her roles, taken risks,
made good choices and bad, and worried about money, aging, and image.
Here are the details of an actress's life: her performances in To Die
For, The Portrait of a Lady, Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours,
and Birth, among other films; her high-visibility marriage to Tom
Cruise; her intense working relationship with Stanley Kubrick and her
collaborations with Anthony Minghella and Baz Luhrmann; her work with
Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Renée Zellweger, and John Malkovich; her
decisions concerning nudity, endorsements, and publicity.
And here are Thomson's scintillating considerations of what celebrity
means in the life of an actress like Kidman; of how the screen becomes
both barrier and open sesame for her and for her audience; of what is
required today of an actress of Kidman's stature if she is to remain
vital to the industry and to the audiences who made her a prime
celebrity.
Impassioned, opinionated, dazzlingly original in its approach and ideas,
Nicole Kidman is as alluring and as much fun as Nicole Kidman herself,
and David Thomson's most remarkable book yet.
