So I’m watching “Pillars of the Earth” on netflix and loving it. Reminds me of just how much I love Medieval/Renaissance movies and TV series and I’m sure I’ve missed a great many things in this genre.
My library consists of:
TV
All of the Cadfael TV series episodes
The short lived Convington Cross
The lion in winter - the one with Patrick Stuart
Pillars of the earth (will be getting it)
The tudors
Movies
Othello - the one with Keneth Branagh
Much Ado About nothing - the one with Keneth Branagh
Hamlet - the one with kene… eh Mel Gibson
Vatel
Elizabeth and the sequel
Rob Roy
Braveheart
The merchant of venice
Kingdom of Heaven
Other Period pieces (though not medieval/Renaissance or very fatasy-ish)
Dangerous Liaisons
Rome the TV series
The last of the Mohicans - the open with Daniel Day-Lewis.
The duelists
The horseman on the roof
Ridicule
Excalibur
First Knight
Highlander (the only one ever made - because no others were ever made)
Dragon slayer
Lady Hawke
So I’m mostly looking for other Medieval renaissance TV shows/miniseries/movies that you guys might recommend I pick up. but as you can see I’m a sucker for fantasy movies of the period, as well as period pieces set in the 18th century.
So please, any suggestions on titles that might fit right in my library would be much appreciated!
A Walk With Love and Death
Restoration
The Navigator
Ladyhawke (if you don’t mind the fantasy element)
Flesh and Blood (better if you view it as a comedy)
TV:
The Elizabeth I and Henry VIII Masterpiece Theater miniseries from the 70’s (Glenda Jackson, Keith Michell)
GOOD ONES
A Man For All Seasons
Becket
Name of the Rose
Return of Martin Guerre
Alexander Nevsky
Anne of a Thousand Days
Fire Over England
Prince of Foxes
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The Wives of Henry VIII
Agony and the Ecstacy
The Virgin Queen
MEH
Beowulf
El Greco
Chimes at Midnight
El Cid
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Fountain
It’s a creaky old movie, but The Private Life of Henry VIII still has its charms. Charles Laughton won on Oscar for his lively portrayal of the lovable old wife-murdering tyrant.
**
The Princess Bride** is a fairy-tale pastiche that doesn’t pretend to accurately represent any historical period, but it has many of the trappings of the renaissance and some highly quotable dialogue.
ETA: I just noticed you had “Rome” on your list. You might want to check out an older miniseries, I Claudius. The sets and costumes are not as lavish, to say the least, but the cast is top-notch.
There’s Henry V… the one with Kenneth Branagh. Adapted and directed by him, in fact.
Tristan and Isolde.
I take it this is the 1988 Australia/New Zealand-made film, sometimes presented as The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey or The Navigator: An Odyssey Across Time, or The Navigator: A Time Travel Adventure, depending on which video release you’re looking at.
This is a great movie, and well worth tracking down (it’s a little hard to come by in the States).
But please, do yourself a big favor and avoid reading any reviews or even capsule descriptions before watching it; virtually every one I’ve seen manages to be both a spoiler and misleading about what is actually happening.
Watch closely.
Oh, here’s another: The 13th Warrior is a very different spin on an old story (a more conventional version of which is already mentioned in the thread)–avoid spoilers on that too if you can.
There used to be a show that I really liked about William Tell called Crossbow. It was where I first saw Nick Brimble, who went on to be one of my favourite character actors.
