The 5 most iconic female villains of movies

They are badass, vain, powerful. And they have a killer wardrobe. Their names? Maleficent, Cruella, Ravenna, Queen of Hearts and Lady Tremaine. We have always known them, since we were little girls and our parents told us bedtime stories. They are witches, stepmothers, wacky and moody queens, ready to make us tremble, but also to make us dream.

They are the 5 evil women of cinema we love to hate. And maybe we just wanted to be.

Malefica - Maleficent

Maleficent is definitely the most beautiful villain ever appeared on the screen. The credit goes to Angelina Jolie who, thanks to an elaborate make-up session (created by the actress' personal make-up artist, Toni G.), gets an even more dark charm than usual. The skin is pale, the eyebrows are arched, the lips are fire red (M-A-C Matte Lipstick Russian Red), while on the eyes an eyeliner mixed with a very dark eye shadow was used and false eyelashes were applied. The cheekbones, which together with the black horns and wings are the very trademark of the dark fairy, are prosthetics created by Arjen Tuiten. The look of the magical creature is completed by long black or greenish dresses with details such as skin, bones and seeds reminiscent of the kingdom of the Moors. 

Cruella De Mon - 101 Dalmatians

The Dalmatian puppies are already trembling because Cruella De Mon is coming back. Emma Stone is the one to bring her back to the cinema in a new project entitled just Cruella, a prequel to the facts reported in the famous Disney cartoon. The trailer and the first images show a young aspiring stylist, Estella de Mon, in the London of the '70s, before becoming obsessed with animal skins. With her curly black & white hair, scarlet mouth and theatrical eye makeup, the new villain is punk chic like a 20-year-old Vivienne Westwood, but she is far from the Cruella played by Glenn Close. Her version of the ruthless fur collector was, although sometimes intentionally clownish, a true style icon with unruly hair, sharp cheekbones and a hot red mouth, swaddled in cocktail dresses and feather-filled two-tone gowns designed by Anthony Powell. Absolutely divine!

Queen of Hearts - Alice in Wonderland

Perfidious, grotesque, wicked and definitely moody, the Queen of Hearts of Lewis Carrol's books, as well as the Disney one, seems to have been inspired by Queen Victoria of England, but it was Helena Boham Carter who made her truly iconic in the film saga directed by Tim Burton. The madness is the same: she punishes for the most bizarre reasons, loves to cut off heads, has all roses painted red and uses piglets as footstools. The aesthetics, on the other hand, become more surreal to the point of recalling a work by Mark Ryden or John Currin: a large head, outsized in relation to the body; heart-shaped red hair, where a small crown sprouts; vaguely steam-punk clothes. The make-up is as dramatic as that of a clown. The base is a thick layer of white wax on which are painted a small red heart-shaped mouth, very thin eyebrows and a semicircle of creamy blue eye shadow.

Ravenna - Snow White and the Huntsman

"Mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all?". It's definitely not Disney's Grimhilde, a witch in a black cloak and amethyst long dress, with thick, arched eyebrows framing the green eyes that made her look like actress Joan Crawford and a hieratic, creepy presence inspired by the statue of Uta von Ballenstedt located in the choir of Naumburg Cathedral. The most beautiful of the realm is Queen Ravenna played by Charlize Theron, first in Snow White and the Huntsman, then in The Huntsman: Winter's War. Cruel, proud, strong, power-hungry, envious and extremely vain, she is the dark and powerful tyrant of Tabor, but, above all, she is a stunning beauty. The fear of Snow White overshadowing her drives her crazy, but, at least on screen, Ravenna has no rival. The merit is due both to the Hollywood star who gives her the face and to the splendid and architectural costumes created by the Oscar winner Colleen Atwood. More than a simple queen, her style makes her look like a true Nordic goddess: the long mantle of golden feathers, the wedding dress inspired by a rib cage, elaborate creations that mix black, silver, gold, leather, bustiers, laces, voluminous sleeves and flashy jewelry like her crown. Even the make-up echoes the metallic tones of the dresses, but the real must-have is the thick, black eye-liner.

Lady Tremaine - Cinderella

In Perrault's original fairy tale, Lady Tremaine is a widow with two daughters, who re-marries Cinderella's father and treats her stepdaughter as a slave. Malicious, cruel, greedy, arrogant, vain, and ready to do anything in order to benefit her daughters Anastasia and Drizella, the most famous and fearsome stepmother in fairy tales turns into an algid and elegant mature woman in the Disney version: grey heart-shaped Pompadour hairstyle; Victorian dresses, usually crimson or purple, with balloon sleeves and lace; earrings, ring and brooch in the same green as her eyes; and a cane for gracefully helping herself.  The Lady Tremaine played by Cate Blanchett in the 2015 live-action Cinderella, on the other hand, is a woman who perfectly embodies the glamour of 1940s Hollywood and iconic actresses like Joan Crawford or Marlene Dietrich. She walks her cat on a leash, eats breakfast in an animalier robe, loves all shades of envy green, wears exaggerated hats and flirty veils, heavy satin and taffeta dresses in shades of saturated green, yellow and red, which have been picked by costume designer Sandy Powell to suggest an idea of poison and danger.