Midnight In Paris & Carla.. the Other Bruni Sister

Carla Bruni and Owen Wilson in a scene from Midnight in Paris

Tree-lined cobblestone streets, golden-baked baguettes, 13th century gothic architecture, outdoor cafes, the Pyramid of the Louvre, the grand Arch di Triumph... These are just a few of the images that open Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Fast forward a bit and there she is.. Carla Bruni and she is fabulous. You may know Bruni from her headlines as the First Lady of France and the sister of Italy's beloved actress/director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, but Bruni is a talented artist in her own right, and that talent goes back decades.

Born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi in Torino, she is heiress to the giant Italian tire manufacturing company CEAT, which was founded in the 1920's by her grandfather Virginio Bruni Tedeschi. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, Bruni said that her biological father is Italian-born Brazilian grocery magnate Maurizio Remmert. He met Bruni's mother, Marisa Baroni at a concert when he was a 19-year-old classic guitarist and she, a classic pianist. Bruni was raised by her mother and Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, a classical music composer.

The Bruni-Tedeschi sisters, along with their brother, Virginio, who passed away in 2006, grew up in France and attended boarding school in Switzerland. The family left Italy in the 70's to escape the kidnapping threat of children from wealthy Northern families by the Red Brigades. The notorious kidnappings were the subject of Gabriele Salvatores 2003 film, Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared). Upon completing boarding school, Bruni moved to Paris where she studied art and architecture, but ended up dropping out of school to pursue a career in modeling. Since then, she has enjoyed a successful career as a top international model and has also become a respected singer/songwriter and actress in the last decade, with her most high-profile performance in Allen's "Midnight in Paris" in which she plays the part of a tour guide. She is so natural in front of the camera, you would never know she was acting. Perhaps her background in Art History gave her the confidence to deliver her lines about a masterpiece of the French sculptor, François-Auguste-René Rodin. Bruni's scenes capture her classic, subtle Mediterranean beauty. Her role in this film utilizes her acting skills, art background and her French-Italian style.

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