2 posts tagged “spanishfilm”

Here are two more of my tries at costume designing for Jason's new film, "Escorial Conspiracy" which he will begin shooting in Spain September 14the, according to his fan sites. I do these because I have so much fun with it, not because I truly believe you or anyone else like them!  I like them!  I day-dream of our beloved actor in fine 16th century garb, with his very own home-grown goatee and perhaps enhanced hair,  Very long hair and wigs were not the accepted fashion.  The court of Phillip II at the Escorial in Spain was very wealthy, having robbed the American Indians such as the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in South America, as well as having set up mines worked by first Indian and then African slaves who died for the sake of enriching Phillip's court.  Phillip II first married Catharine of Aragon and Henry VIII's oldest living daughter, Mary Tudor, who became ruler of England upon death of Henry.  She died without bearing him a child and her young half-brother Edward, became ruler, only to die soon, leaving the throne to his half-sister, Elizabeth I.  Meanwhile, Phillip had married Mary of Portugal, who I think was his cousin. Their court at the Escorial was alive like a snake-pit with vicious and violent intrigue as the high and mighty overlords of Castile and Aragon manuvered for power and wealth.  Sounds like it will be very, very interesting, and a great place for Jason to display his talents as political intriguer, lover, swordsman, and all the great talents he has exhibited in many similiar costume dramas.   

I took a shot at designing some `6th century sort of costumes and look for our gentleman of the court, and I have to admit I made myself laugh so hard that

I nearly fell off this silly office chair!  But I tried, using nice images of Jason with his own real goatee grown for "Dumbwaiter" and based on my costumers/ textbook from

classes I took at U.SouthCarolina for my MA in Theatre! (What a course...my main project was designing costumes for ALL cast members of the opera NORMA!) 

 We want to recall the look of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Catharine of Aragon, etc, from the many films we have ween of them, and we should have a good picture in our mind for the look of these characters in Jason's latest film "Escorial Conspiracy" being shot in Spain!  They did not wear those dorky white powdered wigs as in some of the really poor shots of Jason in a French/BBC type thing about Canada, I believe it was.  I have never found one from that film where he looked anything but the customer of a bad wigmaker!  So perhaps he will have added hair, but it certainly won't be as long as Lucius Malfoy's or Col. Tavington's.  Might be as along as in St.Ives. Men often combed their hair forward and had bangs!

I like those neck ruffs, and can't imagine having to iron those stupid things!  Maybe they used a form thing!  A steam iron would be handy!

I also hope the costumers are not obliged to go for the somber black look of some of the paintings we see, black, black, black..... look like a bunch of weirdo priests from a strange cult sometimes!  I think our favorite villain will look just yummy in lace and frill collars and cuffs, in flashing swords on scarlet leather belts, in darkened armor outlined in gold filligree, riding a beautiful Castilian stallion, or even a lovely Castilian.... sorry.... got carried away with that foolishness!  That probably won't happen because I get the idea this is probably sort of an historical teaching film.  It is sponsored in part by a couple of Spanish state cultural/art/film outfits, so who knows what the script is like?  But we do know that Jason is fluent in Spanish, which he says he learned from a sister-in-law, and I think he is fluent also in French, which I have heard him speaking on some video trailers.  Maybe he even has some German.