costume snobbing

[anotheranon]

I've resigned myself to the fact that "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is going to have very little to do with the actual Elizabeth Tudor's actual "golden age" in the late 16th century.

I've also accepted that the director, Shekhar Kapur, is aiming for larger than life rather than any semblance to historical reality in both plot and visuals.

Really, I get all that. I'm going to see it eventually for the acting, because a triple header of Blanchett-Rush-Owen can't be passed up.

But when Shakur says:

"I more or less like the spirit of the historical look," Kapur says from Los Angeles. "The spirit -- not the actuality of that. Because the actuality can be quite boring."[emphasis mine]

I have to ask - what is he smoking???

I mean, has he EVER looked at any of the umpteen portraits of the real Elizabeth I? By even the most modern Vegas showgirl standards, these clothes are NOT boring - full of veils and ruffs and velvets and crusted with pearls - this is boring??

Mr. Kapur, don't quit your day job :P

Comments

[gillshalos.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Kapur was there at the night the movie "Elizabeth" opened in Toronto, when I went to see it with my husband (Michael) and a fellow Elizabethan costumer. We were so horrified we were practically howling at the screen during the movie and Michael spent the movie trying to suppress us. Needless to say, we *shredded* it as we exited the cinema. The fellow who I think was Kapur heard us and looked like he was ready to kill us when he heard what we were saying. He particularly didn't appreciate our nickname "Elizablech" - he had been drifting around the lobby listening to what people were saying about the film as they left.

Anyway, I am *so* with you - he has been smoking way too much crack, or else has started believing his own bollywood films if he thinks that any Elizabethan history or clothing is boring. There are a few bits that might look a bit odd to the modern viewer, but I would never dream of calling them boring unless the only thing he looked at were parliamentary records, and even they have interesting bits!

All I can say is, he needs his bloody head examined and he better not try and pass off some fantasy mish-mash as historical fact again. Humpf.