It's Good to be the Queen!
Today’s header borrows the coronation scene from the film Elizabeth, first screened at the Venice International Film Festival in 1998 and released to theaters in the United Kingdom in August of that year. The costuming and shot composition of the scene in the film are based on Elizabeth I of England’s coronation portrait attributed to Nicholas Hillard.
Unlike her contemporaries in France, Elizabeth I never granted exclusive rights to produce her portrait to a single artist. However, she did employ a single court portraitist, George Gower, to approve all her portraits to ensure that the images fit approved “face patterns” and conveyed the necessary symbolism of loyalty and reverence for the crown. Even in her later years, as her teeth were yellowing and falling out and she was suffering the general decline of old age, paintings of the queen employed the “Mask of Youth,” portraying her as ever-young and with the same face as had been modeled by Hillard sometime in the 1590’s.
Poor Cate Blanchett is eliminated completely in my gif’ified version of this scene from Elizabeth, but I’m sure she doesn’t mind too much after winning a British Film “Best Actress” award for her work playing the titular role of the queen. The movie also propelled Blanchett to a Best Actress nomination at the 71st Academy Awards, but she did not take the title that year as Gweneth Paltrow was awarded the Oscar for her work in Shakespeare in Love. Interestingly, that same year Judi Dench won an Oscar for “Best Supporting Actress” for Shakespeare in Love playing the role of the same figure, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
The unaltered scene from the movie. with all its pomp and grandeur, is available here for your viewing pleasure:
To learn more:
Wikipedia: 71sth Academy Awards
Wikiwand: Portraiture of Elizabeth I
Isn't that Joseph Fiennes, Ralph's little brother, who was also in Shakespeare's in Love?
I either forgot or didn't know that Elizabeth was queen of France, as well.