Slinky dresses, smoky voices, sweaty skin: the heat of summer brings out bare flesh and the lust for it, at least in movies. Recent DVDs hitting the streets on Tuesdays feature some great screen queens both young and old, from femme fatales to girly girls.
And God Created Woman (1956)–B.B.–That’s Brigitte Bardot to you. Blond, beautiful beyond possession. Here’s the movie that introduced the French actress at her man-eating best.
Diabolique (1996)–This is the bad Sharon Stone version (not the good French one) with Isabelle Adjani as the mousy victim. Can Stone do it without ice picks? Yes; here she is at her cynical, impatient best in an otherwise bad movie.
Drowning Mona (2000)–A misguided exercise in shrewishness. Nobody in the movie liked Mona (Bette Midler), and nobody who saw it liked the movie.
Steel Magnolias: Special Edition (1989)–Everybody should die this beautifully. This supreme Julia Roberts tearjerker invites you to weep along with her and her family, as her Godzilla smile faces an early death.