Spitfire, unapologetic, idiosyncratic, complex and sexy. These are some of the femme archetypes that Annette Bening has portrayed on screen and built a solid cinematic canon upon, from the Marquise de Merteuil in Milos Forman's feature adaption of Les Liaisons dangereuses, Valmont, to neurotic materialist housewife Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty, one of Bening's four Oscar-nominated roles, and beyond.