Although I find her horse-riding entrance in the middle of a family-friendly beach resort a bit bizarre, Solange in Casino Royale is a great character with a short but compelling arc and an unfortunate end. Her far stronger entrance is obviously when she walks into the poker room wearing her beautiful, seemingly barely-hanging-on reddish pink dress, instantly catching the eye of everyone in the room.

From the outset, her dissatisfaction with Alex Dimitrios is clear, and his casual disregard for her makes Bond’s interest feel inevitable. Bond’s pursuit is opportunistic rather than romantic, and Murino smartly conveys Solange’s mix of disbelief and reluctant amusement through her excellent subtle facial expressions. Her reaction to Bond’s audacious DB5 stunt drew audible laughs in showings I attended and remain as one of the movie’s lighter character moments.

Solange’s screen time is brief but purposeful, and once she provides Bond with the information he needs, she is efficiently abandoned, softened only by a token gift of Bollinger champagne and beluga caviar. Her death, discovered with her body twisted in a beach hammock, is unexpectedly brutal and serves as a grim reminder of the cost of Bond’s pursuits, and faintly echoes the shock value of Jill Masterson’s gold-dipped fate in Goldfinger, albeit with less flair.