The truth about Judi Dench

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We frame the artistic theme of this season around the idea of ​​the masks. A powerful symbol in the art world is used to amplify, disguise, manipulate and hide. In the theater, they help create a new person, either in a literal or something more symbolic sense. It can be psychological or physical: a mask hides the multitude of complicated feelings that separate our public and private beings.

As one of the best actors in his generation, or any other, for the case, it seemed appropriate that Judi Dench should be on the cover to announce our theme. Dench is so familiar to the public that many assume that they really know her, and that over the years her public personality has risen to that of “national treasure”: it is so deeply sustained in our affection that one can forget that it is actually a being human. Now 90, limits your work to what you can handle with a failed view, but maintains a fairly busy agenda for all that. His mind is still busy with all the heroines of Shakespeare who has played in the course of his career; Recently co -written a book about the playwright called The man who pays for rent.

Perhaps the secret of Judi Dench’s actions is that she remains so emotionally open to the public

Fiona Golfar asked the friends and colleagues of Dench to Tell us your best stories About his incredible career. They reveal to a woman who is naughty, with a gift to reduce everyone in inappropriate, spicy, seductive, generous, cheerful and quite good moments in arts and crafts. Ironically, in an industry in which many keep their guard high, Dench is without cunning. Perhaps the secret of her extraordinary actions is that she remains so emotionally open to her audience: no one can see the mask.

Leigh Bowery, the late Australian performance artist, dedicated his career to become his own body. Its multiple forms, known as “appearance”, through which it channeled a large number of different personalities, were confused. Somehow, the appearance obscured the man behind the costumes; They also gave him the freedom to express his true self. As a great exhibition, it opens to celebrate its legacy, Victoria Woodcock looks at the masks as a creative help. From Batman to Björk, and from the use of Gillian to the kneecap, the masks are a provocative tool to shake the status quo.

Mike Marino’s skills as a makeup artist have been key to some of the best cinematographic transformations in recent times. Matinée Idol made Colin Farrell into the monstrous Oz Cobb in The penguinHelping Farrell to walk towards a Golden Globe. Currently, Marino hopes to convert a third Oscar nomination into a real statuette for his work in A different manFor which he worked with Sebastian Stan to create a character that has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow throughout the patient’s nerves. Marine skills are sometimes overlooked in an industry in which AI and digital improvement are increasingly used in preference to their specialized skills. Jill Krasny finds him in his thorough efforts However, to disguise his characters, his most proud achievements are when the humanity of a character shines.

Where are you going to drop your mask? For much of Hollywood, that place is the Chateau Marmont. Now, almost a century old and still as elegant as ever, the hotel in Sunset Boulevard has always been a place for secret assignments, surprise encounters and a safe space to lower the guard. It is also a place of creative ferment: the novelist Am Homes has often stayed there while writing and finds a place where he can reinvent, experiment and risk trying things that he could not at home. “It is a kind of house halfway, a perfect bard, a suspension of reality.” She writes in an essay. Like the best masks, he gives him a license to do things that would not dare otherwise.

@jellison22