Queen of Glamour

Queen of Glamour

Queen of Glamour… At first it was just little Beth. One of the many mouths to feed in an orphanage from the 1950s; we learned about her introverted character crossed by fine threads of genius.

Immediately, together with Beth we learned to know and re-know, even those environments made of impetuous twilight in which at least 90% of the scenes of the Netflix TV series “the Queen of Chess” takes place.

A series in which Beth, from a caterpillar that wandered night time for the lower floors of the orphanage, where she had the opportunity to learn the first rudiments of chess from the keeper Shaibel, becomes a butterfly that shines with its own light.

A butterfly

She does so in the history of the series, in which challenges, wins and losses are shown on the chess tables of the most renowned tournaments; but Beth, in the meantime become a young woman, shines much more in her dimension as a glamorous character, albeit borrowed from fiction.

A character who, abandoned thanks to money and success, the rags worn during her childhood years spent in an orphanage, now lives on first-class travel by plane, renowned hotels and clothes, lots of clothes, the best of 1950s clothes and 60.

Now Beth has become a well-rounded character, so popular all over the world that she has become a style icon that they look up to in their twenties, thirties and forties.

A character, albeit a successful fictional one.

The secret of success

But what were the ingredients of such a success? There are those who dare to “blame” the plot of the series, undoubtedly compelling but which, at least in my experience, is not the reason that keeps me glued to the tablet enjoying it episode after episode and season after season.

I believe I can affirm, even for what is my knowledge of the subject, that one of the key elements of the TV series “The Queen of Chess” is the obsessive care of the “image” product or, as they say in cinematographic jargon, of photography.

A masterpiece, which does not need electronics and special effects to explode; I have no other words to be able to define that mix of lights or shadows that, combined with the make-up and (as mentioned) the clothing chosen for Beth’s characters, lead to a dictation that fascinates, that takes, regardless of what then it actually happens to the character herself. I found myself watching entire episodes of which I did not remember anything of what Beth had said or done but of which I am still perfectly able to recreate the photograph used by heart in my mind.

In the photo I inserted in this post you can see an emblematic frame of that refined image processing that underlies the whole story of “The Queen of Chess”.

A series destined to make school and of which, I’m sure, in twenty years, we will remember more easily, the lights, shadows and colors mentioned above and not the amazing challenges faced by the young protagonist, on the chess table as on the table of the life.