Sunday 9 November 2014

Tim Burton's Red Queen in 'Alice in Wonderland' - Off with his head!




Alice in Wonderland- The Red Queen

Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen in Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland from 2010.



OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!


When you look at the Red Queen you can see similarities to the Elizabethan beauty ideal. Such as a quite high forehead, very white skin, red lips and the heart shaped red hair. The Elizabethan didn't had heart shaped lips but you can use the heart shape as a reference to it- use of heart shape in hair. I think the Red Queen is quite a contemporary version of the Elizabethan's. Using this bright turquoise color gives it a very modern touch. Also Elizabethan eyebrows were were light and thin or completely shaved off and here we have still thin but dark eyebrows. When I read the interview with the makeup designer for 'Alice in Wonderland', Valli O'Reilly, on Lisa Eldridge's blog (http://www.lisaeldridge.com/blog/26587/make-up-moments-off-with-her-head/#.VF_4MfmsVbG) I found it very interesting how they came up with the makeup design and to see how they with overcame difficulties. Such as how to make the eyebrows disappear. ' Then Tim decided he didn’t want eyebrows on her. Helena has quite thick eyebrows so I couldn’t take them away like you do for fashion, or the way drag queens do it because her eyebrows were too thick, that’s when we had to make a decision to get prosthetics involved. A piece had to be made to cover her eyebrows.' (http://www.lisaeldridge.com/blog/26587/make-up-moments-off-with-her-head/#.VF_4MfmsVbG) If you keep reading the interview you know that there were also problems with the prosthetic because it wasn't as flexible and moved when Helena's facial expression was intense. So they had to make other ones. A lot of people think makeup is very easy but here you can see that there is more to it. 

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