“Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself,” Selina Kyle, Gotham socialite says in the pathos-rife action vehicle, The Dark Knight Rises. Kyle, played by actress Anne Hathaway, recapitulates between civic-minded do-good and villainy as the nefarious alter, Catwoman. Director Christopher Nolan depicts a grittier city Gotham into a stark anti-paradise with big-bads, and peril afoul.
In the darker Gotham Catwoman maintains her serrated-edge stiletto heels with accoutrement of futuristic goggles, retractable into feline-like ears – she’s beautiful and perfect, resembling a mix of sugar, spice and not so everything, nice.
Hathaway discovered inspiration for the updated Kyle from 1930’s actress, Hedy Lamarr. ”I know this sounds odd, but her breathing is extraordinary,” this year’s 2011 Oscars ® co-host said. “She takes these long, deep, languid breaths and exhales slowly. There’s a shot of her in Ecstasy exhaling a cigarette and I took probably five breaths during her one exhale. So I started working on my breathing a lot.”
After her Oscar ® host debut, Hathaway chose a foray into portrayal of a Gothamite. “What’s come before doesn’t limit or even affect this new version,” she says about the Bob Kane – DC Comics Bruce Wayne cosmos. “It doesn’t affect me because each Catwoman – and this is true in the comics as well – she is defined by the context of the Gotham City created around her. Catwoman is so influenced by Gotham and whoever is creating Gotham at the time. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was informed by Tim Burton’s Gotham and Eartha Kitt was informed by Adam West’s Gotham. You have to live in whatever the reality of the world is and whatever Gotham is.”
The moodier, near hedonistic aplomb presented in Nolan’s picturing proffers Christian Bale as the altruistic and super-conflicted hero in waiting Wayne/Batman. Tom Hardy as Bane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, and Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose, as Miranda Tate round out the international cast in the conclusion of the Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, in theatres and in IMAX July 20, 2012.
