Monday 11 February 2013

Great Expectations: 1946 Film



ESTELLA

In the 1946 film of Great Expectations young adult Estella is played by Valerie Hobson, I think she portrays Estella rather well, playing her out as she is in the story very well. However, for the purpose of this project I need only assess her appearance.

Even though the film was in black and white, as indicated in the novel, this version of Estella has dark brown hair, and throughout her time as an adult is always up is a traditional manner. It is also clear that for the purposes of filming, her eyes have been darkened as have her lips, though this was most likely done to make her clearer for the camera format to pick up, I do think it seems a little out of character as she seems more naturally beautiful, therefore any makeup applied would be to highlight this instead of hiding flaws. I also don’t necessarily agree with the styling of her hair in her first scene as an adult (as the time in the book I am basing my look for her on), through my research I am aware that upper and middle class citizens did include many forms of décor in their hair, but it is not mentioned   that they often wore hats, I may be mistaken but while creating my own look, I would much rather use the hairstyle to accentuate her beauty and higher class.

Though I find this films interpretation of Estella to be very accurate and well done, there are many small things I would do differently which help me to create my own design for the characters different from that of this film.

MISS HAVISHAM

Martita Hunt plays the role of Ms Havisham in this production of the novel, how her makeup and hair has been done is very similar to that of the sketches and my own personal vision of the character. My favourite part of this creation of Miss Havisham is how well they have created her hair, as described in the book, it is white and adorned with wedding flowers and a veil. The style of the hair is very messy and loose which perfectly fits her crazy and broken character, but also shows how it has been affected by time in that a style that was most likely perfect and tight to the shape of her head upon her wedding day, is starting to fall out over the time, but also due to this length of time has grown making it loose and unmanaged, becoming dishevelled as the new hair is forced to sit beneath a hairdo that was fixed many years ago.

Though I love how the hair was styled for this look of Miss Havisham, I do have a few problems with her makeup, I think her skin looks too perfect and clean, but having been wearing the same clothing for years and not bothering to take her hair down I highly doubt she would bother to wash her face. It is also evident in the story that Miss Havisham has caused herself to become mentally unstable and ill, I feel as though this sickness would be reflected on her face, even if just by lack of sleep causing large eye bags.

To conclude, I will be taking great inspiration from this representation of Miss Havisham towards designing her hair style, however, will look to other ideas when applying makeup to help create a look best suited to her character in my own interpretation.

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