I went to see "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"

A fencing Jason Isaacs--in tights, no less!! Sorry--a historical drama concerning machinations and maneuverings in the court of Spain's Philip II, erstwhile husband to England's Queen Mary Tudor and dispatcher of the ill-fated Armada. Velvet and ruffed collars. Unfortunately, it appeared only sporadically in theatres, and is tough to find even on DVD.

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Hilary the Touched
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I went to see "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"

Post by Hilary the Touched » Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:02 pm

last night. (Char, you said you'd seen it, yes?) What, you ask, has this to do with Escorial? Well, as observed in the description of this forum, Elizabeth's Philip of Spain is the Philip of Spain of Escorial. In fact, that incredibly gloomy foreboding edifice through which Philip went mincing as if he were wearing his daughter Isabella's tiny shoes IS the Escorial.
The costumes were, indeed, fabulous; I had issues with the basic silhouette of most of Elizabeth's, but they were very beautiful and very rich.
I thought the fabrics were often wrong; the jacquard patterns were better suited in scale to household textiles (bedhangings, for instance) than garments, and looked too baroque to me. I suspected that costumers were using the decorative quality of their surfaces as a kind of shortcut, instead of creating the elaborate constructions so often seen in Elizabeth's portraits. Many of the jewels and adornments were very effective though.
Sprog correctly identified one interior as Hatfield House, and further correctly recalled that the structure used in the film, while adjacent to the building in which Elizabeth had spent part of her childhood, had not in reality been built by the time depicted in the movie.
After seeing Walsingham dispatch his young lover (am I remembering that correctly?) in the first movie, I was somewhat befuddled by seeing him with presumably his wife. Wouldn't be the first.
Okay, I can't hold back any more: Clive Owen--hot hot hot.
Damn hot.
REeeal hot.
So hot one could almost forgive him hoisting poor Abbie Cornish by the crotch in a performance of the Volta. W T F ????? A quick Google search yields the intelligence that woman were lifted by the busk during this ridiculous dance, which makes little more sense . . . unless they were wearing a farthingale underthingie that prevented one gaining access to their hips . . . Even so, I mean they're already jumping, how much help do they need??
Very silly, and looked very painful. And not very believable.
So. Anyway. Yeah, that Philip. That Escorial.

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Post by Chari910 » Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:14 pm

I did pick up on that too, Hilary. Same Felipe of Spain.

That dance was really odd indeed and Clive Owen never looked better.

Antonio Perez went to the British Court for a short while after fleeing from Spain, didn't he?

I'm now finishing the book 'THe Other Boleyn Girl' and I really enjoy it. The movie will have Eric Bana as Henry, Scarlett Johannson as Mary Boleyn and Natalie Portman as Anne. I definitely will see this one.

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Post by Soule » Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:15 pm

Both of the Elizabeth films I love. the settings and the scenery are stunning.

and as a plus Christopher Ecclestion is in the first along with daniel Craig and Clive Owen is in the sequel.

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