‘Elizabeth’- Film Review

‘Elizabeth’- Film Review

‘Elizabeth’ was directed by Kapur Shekhar and released in 1998 it tells the story of Queen Elizabeth’s reign over England. In the film we are shown the journey from beginning to end of her great challenges from a young woman, with not only her changing in personality but in looks. In the beginning of the movie we see Elizabeth as a very content young lady with long auburn locks, with little plaits or any hair pieces and in simple dress but as the film progresses and she becomes more powerful the look begins to form into something more royal and regal. From her coronation she has a simple plain hairstyle with a plain face and just the clothing of her royal garments and her crown which represents the start of her journey. The one iconic element to her look is her hair which really resembles her change of character as she goes from having her hair completely down in the introduction, then to half up half down hair styles to the ending when she shaves her head and wears glamorous Tudor wigs.

In the last scene of the film Queen Elizabeth has all her hair cut off which is supposedly to be represented like the virgin Mary which she was also classed as the virgin Queen due to her never marrying to another man. Some believe she never married due political reasons being if she married an Englishman this could cause problems with foreign countries or if she married a foreign man she could cause disputes in that country, therefore she decided to stay as the virgin queen. Even announcing that she was ‘Married to England’ meaning she was a woman of power to protect her country and nothing more. The white make-up on her face use to represent higher class in the 16^th century as only wealthy women could afford it and women of lower class worked outside meaning that they would develop suntans therefore the paler you where the richer you where portrayed. With the link shown below its states that some information was not stated correct in the film as she wore the white make-up later then her reign as she developed small-pocks later on in life so the use of the heavy make-up was used to cover these.

By Amelia Richmond-Knight 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2031177/Elizabeth-I-Virgin-Queen-She-right-royal-minx.html

http://elizabethi.org/contents/faq/two.htm

https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081028205758AAaEDdM

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-was-elizabeth-i-called-the-virgin-queen.htm