Best Makeup/Hairstyling 1915
by popegrutch
Hello everyone and welcome to the Century Awards! As with last year, my plan is to post one award per hour, building up to the Best Picture of 1915 late tonight. So, get ready, here we go!
Actors and actresses always want to look their best under the camera’s unforgiving eye. In some cases, they even may want to take on an appearance not their own, to put on a mask that convinces the audience they are a different age, color, race, or even sex, than the really are. That’s where the magic of makeup and hairstyling comes into play. While we often don’t have records of the names of these artists from this period, we can still honor their legacy by choosing the best of the best.
This year’s nominees include everything from crime serials to comedies to dramatic narratives. In “The Deadly Ring,” a chapter of “Les Vampires,” the art of deception is used by several characters to appear as others, and we also see Stacia Napierkowska transform into a bat. In “A Woman,” the clowning Charlie Chaplin assumes the fairer sex in a clever deception to get closer to the girl of his dreams. “A Fool There Was” features some of the most famous appearances of the alluring Vamp, Theda Bara. In “Trilby,” the handsome Wilton Lackaye reproduces his stage role and becomes the diabolical Svengali. Finally, Charlie Chaplin again deceives an audience into thinking he’s two separate men in “A Night in the Show,” which also features the outrageous makeup of several of his Essanay comedy comrades.
The nominees for Best Makeup/Hairstyling for 1915 are…
And the winner is…”A Night in the Show!”
This year, I felt that Charlie Chaplin more or less had to take it. Throughout his movies, he’s demonstrated an understanding of how makeup transforms actors and enhances their performance. In “A Night in the Show” he manages to be two very different characters, surrounded by a crew of other bizarre folks, largely due to makeup and hair.
Century Film Project 