Period Movies

[pen_grunt]

I've been in the mood for period movies lately. Maybe it's all the Jane Austen remedial reading I've been doing.

Here's my problem, I never know which editions I should get if I haven't seen a movie before (or if it's been a long time). For instance, there are about 100 versions of Jane Eyre, and yet, I'm not sure which is best. So I want to get Jane Eyre, but I don't want to end up with an inferior version.

I also don't know which movies I should get in general. Yesterday I used up only part of an Amazon gift certificate getting:

A Room With A View
Hamlet
Henry V (Kenneth Branaugh edition)
Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow edition b/c it was cheap)

I already have:

Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Much Ado About Nothing
Vanity Fair
ETA: Robin Hood (Errol Flynn edition)
Various others that I can't think of at the moment.

What else should I get? What's your favorite?

Comments

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

Not precisely the same thing, but I <3 "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead". I've seen a few different versions of Jane Eyre (probably all of the ones the Mpls. public library has) but none of them really stood out for me. I wonder if rottentomatoes.com or somewhere rates this sort of thing?

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Awesome suggestion with R&G.

And yeah, I'm sure Rotten Tomatoes has a listing, but it's hard to determine what's critically acclaimed and what's popularly liked (I don't always agree with critics in terms of entertainment value).

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

Well, one thing I like about rottentomatoes.com is it gets the first few lines of a bunch of reviews on to one page, so it's a good way to get started figuring out if you're likely to like a film. I don't always trust reviewers, either.

Sometimes I can tell, without having watched the film, that a reviewer doesn't understand the genre of the film he's reviewing and is completely unqualified to review it (except perhaps to people who think very similarly to him) - in these cases sometimes a bad review can actually convince me I want to see a movie (like if they can't find much of anything bad to say about it that I actually think is bad).

Though now, in these days o' the internet, I can generally just find a more useful review. But I remember when I relied on local newspapers and word-of-mouth to figure out what I wanted to see.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

So "period movies" are anything involving people speaking old-timey British? Because Hamlet was written about 300 years before Emma, so I'm not really convinced that they're from the same period at all.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

"Period", to me right now, is anything with costumes. The loose general definition is anything before 1919--so that could range from Ben Hur to Shakespeare in Love to Jane Eyre, etc. It's one of the more generic definitions I've ever heard.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Howzabout the 1930's version of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone? That one is great in every single way. Great acting, great color, great action, tights and codpieces, the whole nine yards.

Also, my mother and sisters love all of the various versions of Little Women, but I can't recommend that, as I've never been able to sit through it. You, being female, should love it.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

I think they're going to revoke my girl-license for this, but I've never read Little Women (nor had any interest).

And I do have that version of Robin Hood--but that's a stellar suggestion.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Hrumph. Too bad you're not in a noir mood. I could totally help there. But the only other period movie I can even think of right now is The Princess Bride, and I already know you're all over that one.

Ebert's "Great Movie" list suggests this, this (which, if you haven't seen, you really should - it's AMAZING), and this, though.

[liquid-siftings.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a bit later than your timeframe, but Chinatown would be there.

Also, The Lion in Winter is excellent. And Ridicule, a French film set before the French Revolution. And Dangerous Liaisons. And
Excalibur.

I'll stop myself for now...

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Nooo, please! Keep going!