The Oscar-nominated Keira Knightley is breaking away from her usual demure, corset-wearing acting roles to portray a woman on the psychological brink.
There’s nothing straightforward about a designated meeting place in Venice. Italy’s bejewelled city, full of labyrinthine, intricate alleyways and dead ends, provides a perfect setting to interview Keira Knightley, who inhabits the dark and complex mind of patient-turned-analyst Sabina Spielrein in A Dangerous Method.
This drama, set at the turn of the 20th century, is about the turbulent relationship between the great minds of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Known for her period movies, Knightley does the heavy lifting in her portrayal of this little-known Russian woman, responsible for injecting emotional intensity and sexual heat (albeit the disturbing kind) into this otherwise cerebral subject.
During my search for the appointed hotel where the interview will take place, as if in the midst of a Freudian dream, Knightley’s famous visage (promoting Chanel’s latest scent, Coco Mademoiselle) looks out from billboards along the way. Her expression is one of vague amusement.
Finally, pushing through the glass doors of the Hotel Danieli, I am enormously relieved to see the Oscar-nominated actress calmly sitting at a table sipping espresso in the corner of the bustling lobby.
At first glimpse, Knightley looks as though she’s stepped out from one of the 17th-century paintings that hang on the surrounding walls.
Her hair is dyed a darker hue than usual and, despite her modern blunt bob, which enhances her alarming beauty and dramatic bone structure, her face is simpatico with this gothic-inspired former palace. It’s this old-world quality that has aided her in securing leading roles that necessitate the ability to cross oceans of time
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