The life and reign of England’s
Queen Elizabeth I, the so-called “Virgin Queen”, has been of immense
fascination to filmmakers throughout the history of television and
cinema. Born in 1533 to King Henry VIII and his ill-fated second wife
Anne Boleyn, she was the last but longest reigning of his three legitimate
children and held the throne from 1558 until her death in 1603. She was a
popular ruler during her lifetime and the continued fascination with her unique
reign can be ascribed to her personal charisma and the momentous historical
events of her life. There is no such thing as “absolute truth” when it
comes to history as each person, culture and era views it through their own
peculiar subjective lens. The cinematic portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I’s
are no different with each costume designer and actor creating a portrait of a
monarch that is at once awe-inspiring and familiar to the viewer. Three
eras and their attendant films show this simultaneous awe and ownership of
Queen Elizabeth I; “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (1939),
“Elizabeth R” (1971) and “Elizabeth” (1998) and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
(2007) The film’s treatment of her hair, makeup and costume reflect each era’s
aesthetic and cultural feeling for a powerful female ruler who eschewed
marriage and motherhood for kingship. (Latham, 2011)
Clothing of
the Elizabethan period was elaborate, artificial, and a crucial marker of
status. Colours were based on natural dyes and were rather muted so it
was through silhouette, large and unnatural, and decoration, extravagant and
ornamental, that elevated the wearer from the masses. Hair was worn long
but generally pinned up, off the forehead and not cut into fringe. Women whitened their faces with lead-based
ceruse, lips with red and cheeks with purple.
They wore jewels on their clothes, in long necklaces and strings of
pearls, and in their hair. At the peak
of excess was Queen Elizabeth I’s clothing. Not merely an expression of
her personal taste, the monarch’s garments had great political, diplomatic and
psychological meaning. (Saunders, 1989) (Forgeng, 1995) (Mortimer, 2013)
The first half of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign was
spent simultaneously attracting and fending off suitors. To marry a foreign prince would mean bringing
England under the agenda of outsiders and marrying an English nobleman risked
civil war. The second half of her reign
was spent reassuring her subjects, and all foreign power who might doubt it,
that the realm was secure under the kingship of a woman. Her clothing, therefore, as can be seen in
her official portraits, is splendid and intimidating; England is a mighty power
that can hold its own and its sovereign’s female gender has been strengthened
or replaced with masculine characteristics.
The shoulders are broad, the body is unyielding under the layers of
padding and the wealth of the nation is on conspicuous display. (Wilson, 2011) (Riehl, 2010)
Left to right: (Artist U. E., Queen Elizabeth I in Coronation Robes, ca. 1600)
(Hilliard, ca. 1575)(Younger, ca.
1592)
That’s how Queen Elizabeth I was portrayed
during her life; how then does cinema portray her over 300 years later? In “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex”
(1939), the 31-year-old Bette Davis portrays the Queen in her 60s, and she’s
not wearing old age make up. Most of the
details of the film are strictly ahistorical and the clothing is no exception
in pursuit of a fictionalized romance. The stock market crash of 1929 and
ensuing Great Depression left a deflated populace striving to look older and
serious. As an escape, they looked to
the cinema for spectacle, not accuracy. From
the neck up, Davis is in keeping with the Elizabethan aesthetic but from the
neck down, all bets are off. Her
shoulders and hips are soft and the wheel farthingale that would have kept
anyone from getting within arm’s length is conspicuously absent as is the stiff
wooden busk that would have kept the front of her corset stiff. Emphasis is placed on making Elizabeth the “Virgin
Queen who doesn’t want to be”, a much more comfortable idea than the “unnatural”
unmarried state of history. (Robison, 2013) (William H. Young)
Gloria
Jackson’s portrayal of the queen over the course of the six-episode television
mini-series “Elizabeth R” (1971) has long been considered the best on-screen
account of Elizabeth’s life. There was a
great emphasis on accuracy in cinema in the 1960s and 1970s which is reflected
in the hair, make up and costume of this series. Elizabeth
always thought of herself as a young queen and felt trapped in an old
body. She used lots of rough and
whitening powder to cover up scars and her ageing skin. Rather than relaxing her clothing as her body
grew older, she became even more rigid. The
36-year-old Jackson dons old age prosthetics and does not shy away from the
clownishness of period make up. She
swatches herself in masses of fabric and stiffeners. The wheel farthingale, absent from the 1939
film, can be seen in stills from episode
6. The effect is of a battleship that
will not be conquered. (Robison, 2013) (Weatherly)
“Elizabeth” (1998) and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007) has actress Cate Blanchett portraying Elizabeth at 25 and 55. When she came to throne in 1558, Elizabeth was young, healthy and striking. England was excited for this vigorous young woman to ascend the throne. This jubilant spirit is perfectly displayed by Blanchett’s long, unbound hair and natural face, low-cut but historically accurate bodices and swirling skirts. In keeping with the zeitgeist of the late 90s and 00s, the films share an obsession with youth and sex. The first film invents a sex scene for Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes’ Leicester, while the second film finds an excuse to show the Virgin Queen naked. (Robison, 2013) (Latham, 2011)
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