TBT: Alatriste (2006): the Good, the Great, the Bad, and the Ugly

I don’t think I heard about Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer when it was released in 2006, but it’s intrigued me just because 1) why is Viggo Mortensen in a Spanish production, and 2) the images look good, but why haven’t I heard more about it? I’ve been on a 17th century Spanish dress kick (which, if you’ve never geeked out on, you really should, because ALL KINDS OF WEIRD but fabulous things happen! Sorry but THIS IS AMAZING), so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Hey, I don’t always make good choices!

The film is indeed beautiful, but dear god did the editor quit on day one? It adapts a popular modern series of books about the fictional “Captain Alatriste,” a Spanish soldier who fights in the Eighty Years War (1566/1568–1648) who took place in the Spanish-occupied Netherlands. I’ll say, if you’re a war/battle nerd, you might love this so long as you’re not looking for plot. Because while it’s gorgeously filmed (and mostly decently costumed, as I’ll discuss below), particularly with Extremely Long War/Battle Sequences that seem very realistic, those extremely long sequences are TOO DAMN LONG, and the bits that connect them seem to jump around too much.

Although Viggo Mortensen (The Portrait of a Lady, A Dangerous Method, Green Book) was born in New York and partially raised there, he was also raised in Argentina, and that’s where the Spanish connection comes in (how good is his Spanish accent? I have no idea!).

The film is specifically set during the reign of King Philip IV (1621-40), starting with the Siege of Bergen op Zoom (1622) and ending with the Battle of Rocroi (1643). Unfortunately for me, the film never gets into the really interesting/weird era of Spanish fashions that starts in the 1640s, despite technically nudging into that era. I don’t begrudge them this, however — it can be expensive to show fashion change over time in a film.

The costumes were co-designed by Teresa Goikoetxea (El corazón del océano) and Francesca Sartori (Emperor, William Tell), but sadly I can’t find any information about their research/inspirations/process.

Now, let’s run through the costuming and a few adjacent topics as we look at the good, great, bad, and ugly in Captain Alatriste.

 

Captain Alatriste: the Good

Menswear

Overall, I found the menswear convincing! We’re looking for that early 17th century look that still looks very 16th century, with doublets and breeches. And, of course, hats.

Compare those looks with what the upper classes are wearing:

In particular, mad props to the casting and costuming of King Philip IV (1621-65), who as a Hapsburg, was indeed a redhead:

Of course, we’re looking at a lot of soldiers here:

Compare them to Velazquez’s painting of one of the battles depicted in the film (which we’ll come back to):

And all the battle paintings by Félix Castello:

As well as a non-soldier guy buying poultry in a market:

Even more specifically, compare the guy on the left — writer Francisco de Quevedo:

Compare him with his portrait:

 

Womenswear

Some of the womenswear was decent. Once again, at least to start, the women should be wearing that Very High Spanish Renaissance look:

This is the look that should be coming into fashion later in the film’s period — much wider skirts and necklines, longer bodice skirtings, wider hair — that we don’t see on screen:

None of our characters are the queen, however, so some more comparisons:

What we get on screen is, by and large, relatively similar. Angélica de Alquézar is an aristocratic pre-teenager. She starts off in a stiff, high-necked gown, triangular hoop, and an overgown with fuller sleeves:

About 10ish years later, she’s in a high-necked gown with flat ruff and lots of vertical trim:

Ladies wandering around in the streets are harder to pinpoint, but look “Renaissance”-y enough to me, with stiffened bodices, hoops, and layers:

Down the class level, Pilar López de Ayala (Mad Love, The Bridge of San Luis Rey) plays a middling-class wife. It’s hard to see details, but I liked the square neckline filled in with a partlet, cap, and full sleeves:

Compare her look to:

 

Shagging in Corsets

Okay, so it’s perfectly plausible from a historical angle, especially if you think corsets (yes, “stays” or “bodies” in this period) are hot (and they are!). And I get the filmmakers are avoiding nudity, and I totally support an actress’s preference to not get naked on film. But shagging in a corset means no boob access! So it always annoys me. Can’t we just drape some hair artfully?

 

Captain Alatriste: the Great

Viggo Mortensen: HOT

DAMN, GURL.

 

Cinematography + Set Design + Costume Design That Looks Straight Out of Paintings

Ok, and this is the giant redeeming quality of the film: there are shots like these that will make your jaw drop because you feel like you’ve just seen a portrait come to life.

 

And one of the BEST moments is this recreation of the Surrender of Breda, the formal ceremony in which the Dutch give the key to the city to the Spanish general who has just conquered it:

Compare to the source:

And there’s even dialogue that refers to this — coming home from the siege, Alatriste asks a companion how Velázquez’s painting turned out, and the companion says something like “Pretty good, although he romanticized it a bit” (I’m totally paraphrasing). And later, you see people moving the giant canvas, presumably to hang the painting somewhere:

 

Captain Alatriste: the Bad

But, it’s not all good:

Anachronistic Use of Assuit

The aforementioned Angélica de Alquézar might be a Morisco — an Islamic Moor who has converted to Catholicism. Or maybe they’re just trying to demonstrate the strong moorish elements that existed in Spanish culture of the time. But several characters wear things made from assuit, like this scarf:

This headdress:

And this dressing gown:

Assuit (also called Tulle bi telli) is a cotton or linen mesh fabric with small strips of metal woven into it, and is named after Asyut, Egypt where it was made (read more about it at Wikipedia). But the earliest documentation for it is from the 18th century, so it jumped out at me as “SO NORTH AFRICAN/SO MODERN.”

 

Hair Everywhere

While it’s a mishmash, with some women wearing their hair up and covered and some not, whenever it was on upper class women like this I nearly screamed, just because Spanish fashions for women in this particular era were SO stiff and formal that the hair hanging down on these court ladies just seems SO wrong:

 

This Partlet

She’s a super minor character, and not too well off. At first I was thinking “Yay! Her dress looks good AND her hair is very up and very covered!” But the more I looked at that partlet, shoved over her chemise/into her bodice like some kind of demented loofah, the more annoyed I got:

Partlets were smooth and either basted or sewn into place, so there’s no need for all that lumpy shoving.

This Dress

Is it terrible? No.

 

Captain Alatriste: the Ugly

Even More (Less?) of This Dress

But then she takes off the overlayers and I get twitchy:

 

HAIR EVERYWHERE

Dear god. “María de Castro” is a super famous actress who is Alatriste’s love interest, and who later (spoiler alert!) becomes the king’s mistress. She’s clearly modeled on the real-life María Calderón, who was the mistress of King Philip IV and who was painted this way, in her underwear, being dressed:

But I’m guessing in part due to that painting, and in part because it’s sexy, the actress playing María wears her HAIR DOWN EVERYWHERE. In the street:

On stage:

You know I love me some redheads! But that’s WAY TOO MUCH HAIR for early 17th century Spain, the most buttoned-up of fashion cultures.

 

Stage Costumes Inspired by Religious Portraiture & WTF

And THEN, we see María on stage and she’s wearing this dress that is full of wtf.

I will bet you $1,000 that that shoulder drape was inspired by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán’s portraits of female saints, MANY of which feature it, and which were meant to be showing “Ye Oldey Timey Antique-y Saint-y Dress”:

And then WTF with the trim layout down the side of the bodice, and that weirdly lifted up overskirt??!!

 

Have you seen Captain Alatriste? Did you alternately gasp and fast forward too?