Role model: Penelope Cruz on her favourite characters

We catch up with the Spanish star as she celebrates two very different movie releases

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It’s day nine of the 74th Venice Film Festival and the scene at the legendary Hotel Cipriani on the tiny island of Giudecca, overlooking St Mark’s Square, couldn’t be more cinematic. Penélope Cruz is sipping tea from a dainty china cup in the hotel’s Oro Restaurant, with not another diner in sight. Her hair is a little tousled and her chestnut eyes shine brightly as sunlight pours into the elegant waterfront room. In the distance, a little fishing boat bobs gently on the shimmering waters of the lagoon; two young men are sunning themselves on the deck, shirts off, bodies sprawled out as they enjoy the last of the summer heat. Roll the cameras and you’d have an idyllic vignette of life on La Serenissima. Except all is not quite what it seems.

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