Elizabeth Analysis

Elizabeth – Analysis of Scene

The scene opens in a room with Elizabeth getting her haircut. The room seems fairly low-key throughout the opening. This is to create quite a depressing atmosphere to the fact that Elizabeth is throwing her free life away to become the Queen. The room has a blue colour palette for a wash out look, which is a sign of gloominess for the audience to feel sympathy towards Elizabeth’s character, also blue is a rather cold colour. This contrasts with her flashbacks of her life before she is about to turn into the Queen. The flashbacks use golden tones, which is a gold colour palette to bring warmth to the scene as she shows the audience her nostalgia. Also gold is a symbol of rich and expense to show her royalty. There is a two-shot during the flashback of Elizabeth with her lover; this is to show the audience her close relationship with him. In the beginning of the scene her face is awfully pale with red lipstick to stand out. Her facial expressions throughout having her hair cut off look quite vulnerable and upset. The girl cutting her hair seems emotional and frightened. There are many close-ups of facial expressions and the scissors cutting her hair. Their faces look tearful. Elizabeth’s posture when she is sitting on the chair (having her hair cut) looks quite strong and dominant but at the same time weak towards the scissors. The scissors represent her personality being thrown away easily; also her new hair cut is short to create equality with men, which gives the impression of strength.

The second part of the scene is Elizabeth about to become the Queen. The first camera shot of this section of the scene is a long/wide shot showing the courtroom, and Elizabeth’s dominance over the people bowing to her. As she walks into the courtroom there is very well high key lighting on the stage where Elizabeth stands. This is to crop out Elizabeth’s dark silhouette to the lower class people in the room. The light is to directly shine on Elizabeth so that she stands out, and so that the light gives her a guide down the pathway to the Throne. Elizabeth stands well postured on the stairs to show her costume and her powerful body language which is a long shot. Her costume she wears is to tell the audience what period of time this film is based on. Also the pale face, lipstick and dress was fashionable in Victorian times and by the Queen wearing this costumes makes her an icon to other women in England. The white dress symbolizes purity and innocence. Walking down the pathway is like walking down the aisle when getting married, and wearing a white dress is like Elizabeth is getting married to England (which she does say). This throne area is showing her importance to England. As she walks down the stairs towards the throne everybody looks quite anxious and frail against Elizabeth. There is a high angle from Elizabeth’s point of view on her ex-lover looking up at her, this is to show his weakness towards the Queen and that there will not be any future for Elizabeth and him.

The main shot is a close up shot at the end (when Elizabeth is sitting placed on the throne). This is to show her pale faced make-up and her facial expressions. Once again she is looking quite tearful but very powerful towards the audience but looks very serious about the control of her new job. The close up image looks like a portrait of the Queen. It is a bright image and there isn’t any colour scheme, just a plain brightness. The atmosphere seems intense and silenced, like the people in the court room are wondering what the Queen will do now. Also gets the audience a little confused to what happens to England next.