Nationality: American.
Ethnicity: Mother Caucasian & Father African American.
Catwoman is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Pitof and stars Halle Berry, The film is loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name, who is traditionally an anti-heroine and love interest of the vigilante hero Batman.
The catsuit was designed by Academy Award-winning Actress: Halle Berry As Catwoman costume designer Angus Strathie together with Halle Berry, director Pitof, and the producers. Strathie explained, “We wanted a very reality-based wardrobe to show the progression from demure, repressed Patience to the sensual awakening of a sexy warrior goddess.”
The plot features a completely new character, Patience Phillips, taking the Catwoman name, and viewing the traditional Catwoman as a historical figure.
Plot:
Artist and graphics designer Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a meek people pleaser whose only support is her best friend Sally (Alex Borstein). Patience works for a cosmetics company called Hedare Beauty, which is ready to ship a new skin cream called Beau-Line, that is able to reverse the effects of aging. However, as Patience visits the factory where it is being manufactured, she overhears a discussion between the scientist, Dr. Ivan Slavicky (Peter Wingfield), and Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), the wife of company owner George Hedare (Lambert Wilson); speaking about the dangerous side effects from continued use of the product. Laurel’s guards discover Patience and are ordered to dispose of her. Patience tries to escape using a conduit pipe, but the minions have it sealed and flush Patience out of it, drowning her. Lying washed up on the shore and lifeless, Patience is mysteriously brought back to life by anEgyptian Mau cat, who appeared at her apartment earlier, and from that moment on develops cat-like abilities.
With the help of the Mau’s owner, eccentric researcher Ophelia Powers (Frances Conroy), who tells her that Egyptian Mau cats serve as messengers of the goddess Bast, Patience understands that she is becoming a “catwoman” reborn with abilities that are both a blessing and a curse. Wearing a mask to disguise her identity, Patience stalks the night as Catwoman seeking the answers to who killed her and why. Eventually, her search (which involves finding Slavicky murdered and being accused of it) leads her to Laurel. She asks Laurel to keep an eye on her husband, to which Laurel agrees. However, when Patience confronts George (who is at an opera with another woman), he reveals he knows nothing about the side effects. The police arrive and Catwoman escapes. Later on, Laurel murders her husband for his infidelity, and admits to killing Dr. Slavicky as well for his attempts to take the product back to formula. Laurel contacts Catwoman and frames her for the murder and is taken into custody by the police, but not before Laurel reveals the side-effect of the cosmetic product: discontinuing using it would make the skin disintegrate while continued use would make the skin as hard as marble. She also plans to release the Beau-line in the market the following day.
Patience slips out of confinement and confronts Laurel in her office, revealing that Laurel is the one responsible for Patience’s death. During the fight, she scratches Laurel’s face, and Laurel nearly plummets to her death when she falls out of a window, grabbing onto a pipe for her life. Laurel sees her face in a reflection and is horrified by her skin’s rapid disintegration, fails to grab hold of Patience’s outstretched arm and falls to her death. Though Patience is cleared of any charges made against her regarding the deaths of Dr. Slavicky and the Hedares, she chooses to continue living outside the law enjoying her new-found freedom as the mysterious Catwoman.
Catwoman earned a gross of $40,202,379 in North America and $41,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $82,102,379 against a production budget of $100 million.
The film grossed $16,728,411 in its opening weekend playing in 3,117 theaters, with a $5,366 per-theatre average and ranking #3, next to the titles The Bourne Supremacy and I, Robot. The biggest market in other territories being France, Spain, Japan and Mexico where the film grossed $5.2 million, $4.05 million, $3.05 million and $2.9 million.
Choreography and training:
Berry started intensive fitness training with Harley Pasternak in June of 2003. Choreographer Anne Fletcher was brought in to develop Catwoman’s signature style and teach Berry how to think like a cat. She also oversaw Berry’s training in the Brazilian martial art style Capoeira. Berry was trained to crack a whip by coach Alex Green.
“I checked out some to see how Catwoman is treated in the comics, to make sure that our Catwoman was in the same vein. But I didn’t want to be too influenced by the comic book, because the whole point of the movie is to be first a movie, and to be different. Different from “Batman,” different from “Spider-Man” – this movie has its own identity. I tried to find my sources more in the character of Catwoman herself. To me, the Catwoman we’re filming now with Halle Berry is in the continuity of the others. She’s different than Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, different from anybody who’s played Catwoman in the past. But she is Catwoman. When you look at the differences between the comic book Catwoman and the TV or movie Catwoman, they’re all different-but there’s a feeling that they are all Catwoman. Halle brings her own personality, through her attitude and through the outfit.”
