updated: 29/03/2007
One face dominates the sixteenth century, at least for the English-speaking moviegoer: queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, is a recurrent favourite and has been played by: Sarah Churchill, Bette Davis (twice), Glenda Jackson (TV and movie), Flora Robson (three times), and Jean Simmons among others. Recent movies and mini-series have featured Anne-Marie Duff, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett (with a sequel forthcoming) and Judi Dench in the role.
Here the look of the character is somewhat constrained by surviving portraits; but these look almost bizarre to today’s eyes, and many screen Elizabeths have shied away from an appearance that might prevent audiences identifying with the character. In the UK, the aged Elizabeth was at one time an almost a standard makeup test for aspiring makeup artists. It’s easy to see why: the older queen involves a whole series of skills, ageing, bald-cap, wig, creating a likeness and the whole thing topped off with, what appears, to us at least, as an outlandish colour scheme.
Of course Elizabeth is by no means the only sixteenth-century character to be portrayed in the movies and I’ll try to redress the imbalance gradually, starting with another redoubtable lady of the period: Catherine de Medici.