It seems like there are very, very few movies set in Europe during the time of the European Wars (the Thirty Years’ War, Eighty Years’ War, the English Civil War) or even the Jacobean period.
Are there some good “costume dramas” that are set during the 1600s? I have Cromwell with Alec Guinness and Richard Harris. It’s an incredible movie…but I want to see some other period pieces set around the same time, especially if there’s anything involving the Thirty Years’ War or the Dutch war of independence. Stories taking place in continental Europe would be especially good. Wikipedia has this list of films set during the 17th century and it is heartbreakingly small. Only eighteen movies are listed, and of those eighteen, four of them are adaptations of The Scarlet Letter, two of The Crucible, five of them are about the English Civil War, and various others involve the New World and piracy, and there are a few set in late Stuart England.
Are there other films besides the ones listed there that anyone would recommend? They don’t even need to be in English as long as there are English subtitles.
The Glorious Adventure (1922) Charles II
Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) France
Bardelys the Magnificent (1926) France
The Man Who Laughs (1928) James I
The Iron Mask (1929) France
Queen Christina (1934) Thirty Years’ War
Captain Blood (1935) James I
Nell Gwyn (1935) Charles II
The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) France
Frenchman’s Creek (1944) England
The Exile (1947) Charles II
Forever Amber (1947) Charles II
The Gallant Blade (1948) Thirty Years’ War
The Three Musketeers (1948) France
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) France
Lorna Doone (1951) Charles II
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) Franco-Spanish War
Star of India (1956) France
Pirates of Tortuga (1961) Charles II
The Crimson Blade (1964) Charles I, Oliver Cromwell
Witchfinder General (1968) (Released in the U.S. as The Conqueror Worm) Oliver Cromwell.
The Last Valley (1971) Thirty Years’ War
The Devils (1971) France
The Three Musketeers (1973) France
The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) France
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) France
Frenchman’s Creek (1998) England
Lorna Doone (2000)
I have Alatriste; it’s a great movie, despite the fact that I have to rely on my limited Spanish to understand it because there aren’t subtitles on the version I have. But the battle scenes are just amazing.
Thanks for the list, Walloon. I am also interested in any German films of that time period.
How about “Girl With a Pearl Earring”? It’s a film about one of my very favorite painters, Johannes Vermeer, set in mid to late 17th century Holland. Plus, Scarlett Johansson is the female lead and that’s always a beautiful thing.
I will have a look at that. I have always loved Vermeer’s paintings.
Ironically, on the public-works crew that I worked once as a summer job at age 16, the giant, yellow, scary wood-chipper that we would always joke about feeding various annoying co-workers into, said “VERMEER” on the side. I guess the company that made the wood chipper was owned either by a descendant of the painter or a big fan of his work; but I will never, ever be able to see that name without thinking of that wood chipper. Here’s a picture of one.
I find it annoying that the Dutch Renaissance was arguably the most interesting cultural scene of the first half of the 1600s, and yet it’s utterly ignored by filmmakers. It had a fascinating story of its formation, the rise of the House of Orange, the great military triumphs of Prince Maurice and Frederik Hendrik, the incredible surge of scientific discovery, trade, art, and culture…and yet, most people probably don’t know the first thing about this time period. You’d think, for instance, that Quentin Tarantino, who is obsessed with the Netherlands, might take on such a project, an epic film about this topic, but he apparently doesn’t plan on doing so.
It’s annoying to me. Filmmakers are obsessed with these time periods: Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Medieval, and then they skip straight to the New World colonization and the American Revolution as if the European renaissance never occurred.
Then you’ll like it, I hope. The film gets the visual look just right.
Some other films you might like, as they’re definitely Renaissance, although a little earlier than your 1600s date: Queen Margot with Isabelle Adjani, The Return of Martin Guerre which stars Gerard Depardieu, as French law demands,
and Dangerous Beauty
A little later than you’d like, probably, but Johnny Depp’s The Libertine is great.
I came in to mention the Lester Three and Four Musketeers and also the Return of the Musketeers, set some tweny years later. Also Restoration and The Libertine, and I believe Ken Russels The Devils is based in the 17th Century. Also, Garbo’s 1933 loose biopic Queen Christina.
Argent, you are reading Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series, aren’t you? Because if you’re not, you’re missing a real bet.
If you haven’t seen it yet, watch Peter Greenaway’s “Nightwatching”, as well as the companion documentary (which I thought was more interesting than the film itself) “Rembrandt’s J’Accuse”. They both concern the making of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”, but “Nightwatching” is a narrative while the documentary is an art history lesson that ‘exposes’ Greenaway’s theory of the conspiracy behind the militia painting.
I thought I remembered a Rutger Hauer movie, set in Germany during the 30 Years’ War, in which Germans of a sort of libertine Protestant microsect take over an abandoned castle and have orgies, but I don’t recall the title and can’t find it listed in the Rutger Hauer filmography on Wikipedia.
Sounds vaguely like Flesh & Blood… except not really. It is set in 17th century Italy. They are mercenaries. And the castle wasn’t so much abandoned as sacked. But I can’t think of any other Rutger Hauer films that would qualify.
