MovieChat Forums > Persuasion (1971) Discussion > Did Hairstyles bother anyone else?

Did Hairstyles bother anyone else?

posted 17 years ago by alix2468ks
11 replies | jump to latest

My mom kept very good scrapbooks when she was in highschool and she went to a bunch of dances. I am quite sure that she wore the hairstyles of both Anne and Elizabeth in the late 60s early 70s. It really frustrates me. Did lots of women back then, early 1800s, wear lots of fake hair? And when I say fake hair, I mean extensions and the large hair piece. If they didn't, it's quite amazing that Regency ladies had such THICK hair! I would say that these hairstyles, as well as some of the fabric choices, were just trying to be more fashionable with the era that it was filmed in.

[–] ckblake-1 17 years ago

I agree completely. I just watched this version and my first thought when Anne appeared was that she had a 60's hairdo. The ugly costumes and the indoor sets reminded me of the 1965 TV production of Cinderella. None of it seemed to fit into the Jane Austen era!

[–] Julie-30 17 years ago

Women did wear hair extensions in the 1800s. But they did not wear beehives the way they do in this version.

[–] karagape 16 years ago

I'm sure that when our kids look back at the period movies that we have today, they will think the same thing. I am going to assume that it is difficult not to date a film, as it the costumes, hair, and location shots cost quite a bit of money. And this was a simple two-episode mini series.

[–] weaselfrance 16 years ago

They have similar hairstyles/make up on the actresses in the 1971 BBC mini-series of 'Sense & Sensibility' too, although the fabrics chosen are far less eyewateringly awful than some of the horrors on show here.

I think overall there was less attention paid to period correct details in TV productions then (and I'm not just talking about hair and clothes here). I think this may have been due to small budgets and trying to cut costs. In the later JA adaptations, where money was invested by non-British TV companies, the programmes pay more attention to detail and less to fashion IMO.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope

[–] randommovies2002 15 years ago

I wonder if the fabric choice might also have been influenced by the prevalence of color televisions at the time? I don't think they were quite the norm then. If viewers watched in black and white, the fabrics probably wouldn't have been so shocking, and if viewers watched on color television, they may have been pleased with the amount of color used in the production.

It's really interesting to think about it in this context. I recall when my family got our first color television--everything was so new and different!

[–] Julie-30 15 years ago

That's an interesting idea.

And we didn't get a color TV until 1981!

[–] randommovies2002 15 years ago

That might be around the same time we got our first color tv. :-)

That's what got me thinking about the colors used in this version; I was wondering if the makers were thinking about color when they designed the production. There's a lot of color on screen and not just the costumes. Some of the set furnishings are actually quite bright in color. If you were new to color tv in 1971, you might be thrilled to find all that color in a production of Persuasion, and if you didn't have a color tv, you wouldn't see the color so the plaids probably wouldn't seem out of place, lol. ;-).

[–] Julie-30 15 years ago

That really is a very good point.

I remember seeing Bewitched or Gilligan's Island (or any of the other 60s/70s shows I'd only seen in B&W) in color for the first time (I was an adult) -- I was really surprised at how bright the colors were.

[–] randommovies2002 15 years ago

I remember the first time I saw the animated peacock logo on NBC in color. I finally understood what "Living Color" meant!

[–] Julie-30 15 years ago

"Animated peacock" proclaiming "living color." Too funny.

[–] SpringShowers 10 years ago

Sorry for posting so many years later, but I found this very annoying.

I recently read the book and got this version of the movie and was completely distracted by Anne's hair. Reminded me of how my mother dressed up for nights out when I was a kid with her hair all big like that. I found myself hoping she'd wear a bonnet all the time because only then did I notice that she was attractive. And some of the prints reminded me of so many '60s hippy dresses. I found when I closed my eyes and listened it rang truer to the book than actually watching it.