Caterina Murino
Caterina Murino is an actor, born 1977.
Theatre came first. Caterina Murino began with a 1999 production of Richard III, and the screen career that followed has been conducted in several languages across at least four national film industries, which is normal in Europe and almost unheard of in the American system.
The breakthrough was The Corsican File in 2004, a French comedy that made her a familiar face across the Continent. Two years later Casino Royale made her familiar everywhere else. Solange is a small role and its afterlife is wildly disproportionate to its size, which is the standard bargain of a Bond film: a few scenes buy you a permanent line in every profile written about you afterwards. In 2008 she received a European Golden Globe at the Italian Golden Globe Awards.
What the credits actually show is a career built the European way. French policiers and comedies (Antigang, Balthazar, Escort Boys, the French Fried Vacations sequel), British productions (St Trinian's, the crime series Zen), Spanish horror in Veneciafrenia, Italian features and television, and the occasional English-language oddity such as Voice from the Stone. From an English-speaking vantage point this looks like a career that peaked in 2006. From a European one it looks like twenty years of continuous work, which is the more accurate reading.
Movies (12)
TV (5)
Where to start with Caterina Murino
Casino Royale is where nearly everyone starts, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Watch it, note how little screen time the impression is built on, then go looking for the actual career.
The Corsican File is the breakthrough and still the most enjoyable thing on the list, a broad Mediterranean comedy that gives her more to play than any of the English-language roles.
For television, Zen is the best-made of them, Balthazar the most durable, and Escort Boys the most recent evidence that French series keep casting her well.
The Prey is a solid, unfussy French thriller. St Trinian's and Voice from the Stone are the curiosities, the latter mostly for atmosphere. The Spanish horror picture Veneciafrenia is for genre specialists only.