penelope cruz

i watched 'elegy' a billion years ago, at the very beginning of the summer, basically because my roommate had downloaded and was watching it. hence, i don't remember it very well. the premise is that of a horny old professor (ben kingsley) falling for a beautiful young student (penelope cruz, i know), and after seducing her not being able to commit to her for unknowable reasons. at one point in the film, it's hinted that beautiful women are ultimately unknowable, as their gorgeous surfaces seem to distract men from ever getting beneath their skin. who knows. in anycase, as far as i'm concerned this film seems like what it really wants to be about is penelope cruz, and just how gorgeous she is. aside from being a totally unbelievable student (do you know any students who look like penelope cruz ?), i guess one could make the argument that the director's obsessive filming of the languid cruz is about consciously reenacting one of the movie's main themes of trying to capture and preserve fleeting beauty. at the end of the film, cruz's character (it's esp hard to separate cruz out from the character she's portraying, since the character is all about her image) gets breast cancer, and loses her perfect beauty.