King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Laszlo GALFFI
On this saga about Richard Wagner's 40 last years, since most characters would age, I could do everything that can be expected from a make-up artist : beauty, ageings, resemblances, period facial hair, wounds, bald caps and latex jobs. I was mainly in charge of Laszlo GALLFI's make-ups, a great hungarian actor, as the bavarian King Ludwig II. I had four different sets of postiches to do 6 different stages of ageing.
The others characters
I was also in charge of other principals such as Eckerhard Schall, (Frantz Liszt - 3 important steps from mid-age to old age), Sir Ralph Richardson (Pfordten), Gemma Craven (Minna, Wagner's first wife), Marthe Keller (Mathilde Wiesendonck) and Vanessa Redgrave as Cosima Von Bulow) ; one can see them on the DVD Label.
And many more…
I wish I could find more photos of this most interesting shooting.
DISCEPOLO
Claude MELKI
Foam latex nose and chin.
Carlos GARDEL
Grégorio MANZUR
Foam latex upper orbits, cheeks and pouches and nose.
Re-create real characters from photos, although a pleasure, is not an easy thing in any way. But when one must hasten to work to be in time after a colleague's defection and when, moreover, an actor (Claude Melki) has a broken nose after an attack, then, things turn really delicate. By chance, the two actors were extremely cooperative and things turned out really nicely.
Above : real Afghan President Pabrack KARMAL
Left : unknown actor as President Kabral
For this film - shot on locations in Marocco in extraordinary conditions for me (no lab, no oven to cure any foam latex appliance, shooting only at night due to a canicular Ramadan) - I had to improvise this President of Afghanistan look alike in only one day from 10 am till 10 pm. I cast the actor, sculpted the new features on his plaster face, molded those sculptures and brush cast some latex shell pieces (pouches, nose, chin and jowls). Now, I wish I had shaven some of the actor's hairline to match the original's widow peak…