Yesterday, a Princess of Christmas! Today, a righteously angry queen! It is perhaps notable that the entries in this calendar of female characters spanning the decades is so heavy with queens, princesses, witches, wives, mothers and girlfriends, but let’s face it: there aren’t many holiday movies featuring women CEOs or Senators. Given that we can quote every single one of Hepburn’s lines in this film, there was no way we weren’t going to include it. In director Anthony Harvey’s The Lion in Winter, Katharine Hepburn plays the legendary Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II, mother to Richard, Geoffrey and John. After years spent locked away in a convent for defying her husband, she’s let out for a family Christmas as the newly crowned King of France, Phillip II arrives for a visit to arrange the marriage of his sister to one of her sons. What follows is a tale of knives and treachery as each member of this extended family vies for a seat at the table while Eleanor and Henry take chunks out of each other.
Note how she’s an angry slash of red surrounded by muted colors in this scene. Yes, it’s a Christmassy red (as evidenced by putting her rival Alais in a green gown), but every scene with her vibrates with her own fury, sometimes under the surface, sometimes exploding outward. There’s nothing festive about this red. It’s the color of anger and blood, not romance or festivities.
What always struck us about this costume was how simple it is. A minimally designed wool tunic and cloak that hang on her, no underpinnings or corsetry, and almost no embroidery at all. Through most of the scenes, she has to hold the costume in place because of its total lack of closures. The only thing to indicate her station is the jewelry she wears. While the wimple is a sop to historical accuracy (her tomb effigy wears one) and also tends to underscore her many years in a convent, we always felt costume designers Margaret Furse and Lee Poll took their inspiration for this costume from playing cards rather than history; the way it reduces her down to simple shapes and colors. Whether that’s true or not, it does tend to play into the scheming and manipulations that she undertakes constantly. Not a queen of hearts or diamonds, but a queen of blood and daggers.
Next up: One more sad dress before we love bomb you for the finale!
[Photo/Still Credit: Courtesy of StudioCanal UK]
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STRANGER THINGS Star Caleb McLaughlin on THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON Next Post:
Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 21: Anjelica Huston in THE DEAD
STRANGER THINGS Star Caleb McLaughlin on THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON Next Post:
Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 21: Anjelica Huston in THE DEAD
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Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 24: Vera Ellen in WHITE CHRISTMAS
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Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 23: Judy Garland in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
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Christmas Movie Dress Advent Calendar Day 22: Barbara Stanwyck in CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT
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