Cosmetic Cinema
What is both concealed and revealed when characters in films apply make-up? And what do make-up scenes have to tell us about femininity, performance, and the masks we wear?
More from Specials
Episode 1
Women in Red
The scarlet seductress. The crimson temptress. The woman in red. We take a look at this visually arresting fixture of film culture since the dawn of cinema.
Episode 2
Spacesuit Style
The astronaut’s spacesuit has been a repository for the imagination for a century of cinema - long before we actually launched into orbit. How has the space voyager’s suit been presented and dreamt up by the movie industry over the years?
Episode 3
When Meg Met Nora
Celebrating the big-screen collaborations of writer-director Nora Ephron and actress rom-com queen Meg Ryan: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle and You've Got Mail.
Episode 4
Nixon's America: A Country Divided
During the turbulent era of Vietnam and Watergate, documentary and fiction films fiercely questioned the status quo. But how close did American cinema come to pin-pointing the troubling truths behind the 'silent majority'? Is there a reason so many of the most radical among them are forgotten now?
Episode 5
The Menace of Miniature
Doll's houses are metaphorical spaces of sanitised control, but they can be as unsettling as they are comforting. Why are we at once drawn to and repelled by these miniature worlds?
Episode 6
Burton's Gotham
How director Tim Burton and production designer Anton Furst created Batman's moody metropolis in a Buckinghamshire backlot, raised the bar for practical filmmaking craft and set the standard for the ensuing three decades of superhero cinema.
