Pfeiffer: 'Society is beauty obsessed'

By Emma Jones Entertainment reporter, BBC News, in Berlin

But it is only a story - for Hollywood star Michelle Pfeiffer, who turned 50 last year, is very much on top of her game.

Her looks have not faded either, those perfectly sculpted cheekbones and aqua-blue eyes are still described by many critics as "angelic".

It was perhaps her combination of age and good looks which inspired The Queen director Stephen Frears to cast Pfeiffer in his latest project, Cheri.

She plays Lea, a retired, middle-aged courtesan in 1920s Paris, who is in love with a much younger man.

"It feels like society as a whole has become more and more youth and beauty obsessed, even since those days," says Pfeiffer.

"At the same time though, there are more opportunities for women. It's much more socially acceptable now for older women to be with a younger man. I always say 50 is the new 30 now. "

In the movie Pfeiffer plays an older woman in love with a young man

However, Pfeiffer's film roles have been few and far between in recent years as she stepped back from the limelight to raise her family.

Cheri, adapted from two novels by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, is her first dramatic leading role for more than six years.

It reunites her with Frears, the director of her 1989 hit Dangerous Liasons, as well as screenwriter Christopher Hampton.

But Pfeiffer brushes off comments that the film-makers were aiming to recapture former glories.

"There is nothing formulaic about either of them, " she says.

"I think we probably have similar taste in material. I was thrilled when Stephen called me and talked to me about this project. I just felt so lucky."

Lucky too, that she could return to film in France, where Dangerous Liasons was also set?

'Warmly received'

"Back to France!" she laughs. " I just loved it. It all happened so quickly - I couldn't believe that they managed to pull it together."

In truth, the funding was probably secured on the strength of Pfeiffer's name, and that of Kathy Bates, who signed up as Lea's adversary, the bitter, gossiping Madame Peloux.

Pride and Prejudice actor Rupert Friend plays Lea's younger lover, the titular Cheri, and completes the cast.

The movie has been warmly received after its world premiere this week at the Berlin Film Festival, with The Times describing it as "a breezy, bittersweet fondant fancy of a film".

Pfeiffer is reunited with Dangerous Liaisons director Stephen Frears

But while Pfeiffer believes that today's Hollywood stars are under more pressure to maintain their youthful looks than the Parisian courtesans of the Belle Epoque, she is grateful for at least one development.

"As a courtesan, Lea has one of the very few chances of financial independence in those days for women," she explains.

"But it didn't come without its price. She never married, she made the choice never to have children, as she didn't want her offspring to have that kind of life too.

"Not only is she isolated because of the social taboos of her profession but she's isolated in her own world as well."

'Liberated'

That has not been Pfeiffer's experience at all. Happily married with two children, she claims the acting parts she gets offered have only improved with time.

"I feel more liberated as I get older," she says. "There's less pressure to prove myself.

"I'm so lucky to have the choices I have, live the life that I lead and to juggle family and work.

"To have the dilemma of a job that I love going to do, or staying at home with the family - as dilemmas go, they're not bad ones to have."

She admits, almost cheerfully, that she has been asked about getting older "since I turned 35".

That was in 1993 - mere months after she had donned a full-body PVC catsuit for Batman Returns.

So how is it that she seems not to have aged since that award-nominated appearance ("most desirable female" at the MTV movie awards)?

"When I'm not working I stay out of sight and, like everyone else, I let myself go," she admitted to journalists at a Berlin press conference.

"But I eat very well and exercise... and I have good genes."

Cheri will be released in the UK next month.

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