Magical Aging, Second Part

The theme of my last post and this one is age makeups that have unusual persuasive and emotive power.  My experience---and it is deeply subjective---is that among the aging transformations done by the most skilled and ingenious artists, a few cross into the realm of uncanny art by having a rare power to come alive in a specially compelling, specially real, way.  I suspect that the instances of this for me may not be one that have this power for you---and I would be keen to explore the comparisons (email?)/

Here are four more of my favorites.  Two (Kostov, Stiller) were cut from the final film.  I had hoped to discuss six makeups here, but I don't use photos without permission of the artist and the artists behind two of my choices were unresponsive (so far).  In my next post in October I'll continue the theme of age makeup but will focus on projects in which the aim is not to preserve the recognizable identity of the actor but to allow the actor to embody a wildly different elder character, either historical or fictional.

Richard Martin, one of England;s most gifted artists, has done a series of demos on his friend, Ben Haywood, most of them fantasy characters.  In 2017, he executed the following age makeup on Ben, with, to my eye, superb results.




Probably no studio has produced more remarkable and familiar age makeups, many of them extreme age, than Neill Gorton's Milllennium FX, with Neill as the primary creator of most.  Rarer are his late-middle-age makeups.  An extraordinarily "real" silicone makeup on the great Bulgarian actor, Julian Kostov, for Another Mother's Son, was scrapped from the film.




Another treasure from Millennium, more illustrative of the Neill's genius for extreme age, is the following makeup on Arthur Darvill for Dr. Who.



Prosthetic Renaissance. founded and headed by Mike Marino, based in New Jersey, has for the last decade turned out project after project with eye-popping and innovative results.  Their work for Heidi Klum's succession of Halloween parties show wit, skill, and versatility that any studio would find hard to match. In future posts I plan to explore the many directions of their creativity.  For The Secret Life of Walter Mitty they crafted a silicone age makeup that was ultimately not used but was a model for extreme age.



In my October post, I will look at European examples of age transformation involving creativity beyond any aim of continuity between actor's appearance and role.  After that, a look at sinister characters and dark fantasy.  Let me know your thoughts:  thomas.morawetz@uconn.edu

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2022 at 6:22 AM

    It's amazing work! I'd like to see one of these transformations up close and live....

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2023 at 2:41 PM

    Glad I have been given the chance to read your excellent blog. Some blinding age makeups I agree by talented artists. Since your book feel there is a void that needed to be filled. Superb reading. Long may it continue. Stevo

    ReplyDelete

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