updated: Mar 28, 2002
nineteenth-century Euope
eighteenth-century Europe
medieval Europe
ancient Rome
ancient Egypt
This section covers the use of makeup to portray historical or fictional female characters in pre-twentieth century settings. I am well aware that this section is currently extremely Eurocentric and I hope gradually to correct this.
As you can see film-makers have often used as much artistic licence in the look of the past as they have in plotting historical movies. Just as historical sources tell us more about the time they were written than the period they supposedly documented so period makeups often say more about the makeup of the 1930s than of Ancient Egypt: you can see Claudette Colbert wearing her Cleopatra hairstyle in other movies she made that year that had a contemporary setting.