Firebrand (2023)

We’ve been all hot and bothered about Firebrand (2023) since first seeing glimpses of the not-sucky French hoods during filming. That’s why I jumped on seeing the movie for opening weekend and am banging out this review! However, as we’ve noted before, reviewing stuff still in the theaters means we can’t get screencaps and are limited to the few promo pix that have been released. I wish I could find more because the costumes are definitely as good as we’d hoped — and I really can’t talk about the plot of the movie!

Sure, you’d think this being about the final years of Henry VIII and his final wife Katherine Parr would be a straightforward story for us who know our history. Four years of marriage punctuated by a religious scuffle, done! Well … Firebrand is actually historical fiction, based on the novel Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle. I haven’t read it, so it’s probably not fair to blame the movie’s script entirely on that, but let’s just say the movie plays fast and loose with history. The focus is on Katherine’s religious views, and there are some interesting things added to the historical timeline. It’s not dumb, and I was entertained, but I don’t want to spill details because I think it’d be more enjoyable if you go in without prejudgement. The one thing I’ll say is that Jude Law’s portrayal of Henry is exactly spot-on as the capricious, abusive asshole I imagine him to have been at the end of his life.

I can talk about the costumes though, even if I don’t have many pix! In a Deadline article, director Karim Aïnouz said he wanted to work with costume designer Michael O’Connor because of his work on Ammonite (2020). To which O’Connor replied:

“I said: ‘Well, she’s scrabbling around for dinosaur poo on the South Coast, and this is the court of Henry VIII, so they’re not really related to each other.’ But he wanted to get into what happens behind closed doors. It’s about how to transpose his style onto this subject. He wanted to coarsen it up a bit.”

That sounds like the costumes would be rough ‘n tumble, but they’re really gorgeous. They do look like clothes, with all the many layers that go into outfits of the 1540s — smocks, partlets, kirtles, petticoats, gowns, pinned-on sleeves, caps, hoods, etc. No skimping.

 

 

Katherine Parr’s Costumes in Firebrand

The queen (played by Alicia Vikander) gets a solid wardrobe for this film, usually wearing a standard Tudor court gown with big belled sleeves and a contrasting skirt forepart. Although in an early scene for a privy council, she wears an excellent reproduction of the outfit in this portrait, including the headgear:

This gown isn’t an exact portrait repro, but it’s close.

Compare with this full-length portrait of the queen:

She has the same gown in several colorways, like this dark red:

And this green with yellow:

This gown is the same style, but in all-black, and she wears it with a high-necked partlet. Looking more modest for prayer.

And we get a glimpse of her undergarments, which include a roped petticoat or farthingale.

It’s a rather huge, but the construction is similar to what had been done in the period. This Spanish image is comparable because Catherine of Aragon supposedly brought this style of skirt to England for use as a petticoat.

 

 

Henry VIII’s Costumes in Firebrand

Jude Law wore a full padded body suit underneath the costumes, along with facial prosthetics, all created by makeup and hair designer Jenny Shircore. The look is very convincing, often gross, sometimes creepy. Producer Gabrielle Tana told Deadline that other actors didn’t want this part:

“They didn’t want to have to go through that physical transformation, and all they could think about was that Hans Holbein portrait of Henry as this very stout, big thing. They couldn’t get that out of their mind. There’s something very dark about that period and this Henry. But Jude relishes this, and he has totally embraced it.”

In an interview with Deadline, Jude Law talked about wearing leg prosthetics for Henry’s ulcers and how that and the costumes helped him with the role:

“Michael O’Connor, our wonderful designer, found a team who made it authentic so we could wear [the costumes] very loosely and open and play with them and take them on and off and all the underwear and everything was authentic so we could really live in them. Just personally, how that helped me was just that the scale of it all added so much volume to me and impact.”

A number of these Henry VIII outfits were made by The School of Historical Dress and Sébastien Passot, and he’s posted about several costumes on Instagram. Here’s one item in the film, a long, purple silk velvet gown, lined with silk satin and fur:

This behind-the-scenes shot shows the full-length gown:

I bet that style was inspired by this image of the king:

The movie’s interiors were filmed in low light, so details can be hard to make out in some scenes:

Luckily, Sébastien Passot shared a picture of that costume, where you can see it’s silver with embroidery:

Clearly inspired by this classic portrait of Henry VIII:

Henry alternates between wearing loose robes while getting his ulcerous leg treated and wearing all the big, puffed-up silks and velvets.

There’s so many images of Henry in this style of outfit, but here’s one in yellow that seems relevant:

In a Deadline article, costume designer Michael O’Connor describes a fur-trimmed coat of Henry’s, saying: “It has to be real otherwise it looks like teddy bears. They’re old cut-up fur coats, so they’re sustainable.”

 

 

Accessories in Firebrand

Kind of saving the best for last, because even in the trailers, we’ve been excited about the headgear! Josephine Willis made many of the women’s hats, specifically the French hoods worn by the queen and her ladies, which she describes on Instagram.

Yes, these get a lot of attention for being gorgeous and ACCURATE, let us count the ways:

1. There’s an actual hood — it’s not just a headband, and no hair is hanging free down the back.
2. It doesn’t stick straight up — it sits low, almost flat back on the head, which did become such an extreme fashion that chin straps helped hold the hood on.
3. The whole thing is in a pleasing proportion to the wearer’s head — not too big, not too little.
4. No extraneous bullshit like padded rolls, wings, pointy bits, etc.

Compare with these period images (arrows pointing out all the bits that should be there and are for a change!):

French hoods aren’t the easiest headgear in history, but it shouldn’t be that hard to avoid those dumbass mistakes. Yet movies and TV shows do them, again and again. Thank you, everyone involved in Firebrand, for not fucking it up!

It’s not just at court where ladies get proper historical headgear. Willis also made the sleek black hoods that Katherine and her ladies wear when riding and the caps worn by Anne Askew here:

Also in that photo, you can see pins being used, blackwork embroidery, and all kinds of lovely historical details. YAY! Oh and the dress on Anne (right) looks like a round gown, very similar to a pattern The Tudor Tailor recently published. I made this one, and it goes together beautifully, btw. Oh and they just mentioned on social media that the film features a bunch of Tudor Tailor ouches, the particular jewels that were often used on French hoods, around a gown’s neckline, and elsewhere on garments. I did notice closeups on these and thought, hey, nice repros!

There were precious few costume details I could complain about in this visually pleasing flick. One particular kirtle on Katherine had fit issues in one scene at the end, and here for one feast, Princess Elizabeth appears to be wearing bright red lipstick (which doesn’t happen again).

One last compliment though — Thomas Seymour has a proper beard! He’s not a cheesy modern heartthrob, he’s a 1540s dude with a long-ass beard. Doesn’t show up in promo pix, but he does resemble this portrait:

 

 

Will you see Firebrand soon?