‘Ubiquitous but luscious’: Gemma wows Cannes

Gemma Arterton, the new darling of British cinema, has proved she can hold her own in both Hollywood blockbusters and low-budget independent films. Now she has wowed them at Cannes, too.

Last night, on the Croisette's red carpet, Arterton was in leading lady mode, wearing a stunning draped gown (above) for a screening of The Prince of Persia. Meanwhile her other new film, Tamara Drewe, directed by Stephen Frears, was also premiered at Cannes, earning strong reviews for the 24-year-old from Gravesend.
 
Arterton has made a name for herself in two short years with a variety of roles. She was described as one of the funniest Bond girls ever, starring opposite Daniel Craig in 2008's Quantum of Solace, and, in the same year, was lauded for her lead performance in the BBC's critically acclaimed mini-series, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Younger audiences know Arterton from her outings in the St Trinian’s remakes.
 
But it is 2010 which seems set to be her year. Five months in and she has already been seen in London's West End (starring in the Tony Award-winning comedy The Little Dog Laughed), in multiplexes in The Clash of the Titans remake and in art-house cinemas in the scary indie hit, The Disappearance of Alice Creed.
 
And now comes Tamara Drewe, based on Posy Simmonds's bucolic cartoon strip about a young London music journalist who causes a stir when she returns to her childhood home in Dorset. Many of the best reviews after yesterday’s Cannes premiere were for Arterton in the lead role.
 
Kate Muir in the Times called Arterton "luscious and ubiquitous", adding that "without her, the film might have been like watching Farrow & Ball paint drying". Arterton "exudes gusty pulchritude" wrote the Daily Telegraph’s Sukhdev Sandhu.
 
Arterton was recently lambasted by male fans of the video game Prince of Persia who said she was not enough of a "sex goddess" to play the role of Princess Tamina in Disney’s film version and last week she revealed how "unhappy" she had been about seeing herself in the film.

"I was a little depressed about it,” she told British magazine Stylist. "Every insecurity you have is amplifed on a huge screen. I wasn't always this way: in St Trinian's I didn't care, but that's changed."
 
The pressure on being a leading lady was immense, she added. "I'm not comfortable with it, I always saw myself in the theatre... It's so strange to suddenly be thrust into it."
 
Last night, however, she looked more than comfortable in her new role as a Hollywood A-lister, dazzling the Cannes crowd on the arm of Hollywood uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. ·