# Movies set in Europe during the 1600s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828 "2009-09-28T06:59:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/21 "2009-09-28T18:07:23Z")
I’ll give another nod to _The Last Valley_—hell, if only for John Barry’s music. (And you can’t beat his [lyricist](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tr-nen-des-vaterlandes/).) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/22 "2009-09-28T19:22:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Has there ever been a good biopic about Cromwell? There **should** be! Depends on your opinion of the one mentioned in the OP. I find it flawed but useful in my AP Euro classes. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/23 "2009-09-28T19:39:45Z")
I see I got beaten to the punch with _Alatriste_ (which is surprising, because it’s rather obscure… but I should’ve known better seeing as it’s the Dope 🙂 ) Other good movies from the 17thC: Cyrano (the 1990 version w/ Gerard Depardieu) Tous Les Matins Du Monde (starring Gerard’s son, the late Guillaume Depardieu) Artemesia (about the famous female painter, set in 17thC Italy) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/24 "2009-09-28T23:05:17Z")
Looks like the Germans made a TV movie of [Simplicius Simplicissimus](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262067/fullcredits#writers) a long time ago, but it’s too obscure to be available on DVD. Watching clips on Youtube, I’ve discovered that the Poles made a lot of historical epics back in the 60’s about when they were the great big Grand Duchy of Poland-Lithuania in the 1600’s, fighting the Germans and the Turks and the Swedes (movies about them fighting the Russians never seemed to have been green-lighted 😕). Dumb acting and plots, but plenty of [winged hussars](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1dD530tAsY&feature=related) charging all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/25 "2009-09-29T00:04:27Z")
**infinitii** mentions Peter Greenaway, which reminds me that _The Draughtsman’s Contract_ is set at the end of the 17th century. Greenaway’s films tend to evoke feelings of either love or hate. But many of them make references (in terms of scene compositions as well as actual images in the background) to 17th-century Dutch art as it’s one of Greenaway’s favorite time periods–although _The Draughtsman’s Contract_ is the only one actually set during that era (albeit in England, alas). For instance, _A Zed and Two Noughts_ abounds with references to Vermeer, while _The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover_ references Franz Hals. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/26 "2009-09-29T00:17:23Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > **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. I haven’t heard of that. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/27 "2009-09-29T00:22:18Z")
> [@willthekittensurvive](#): > > It’s not a movie but a mini serie about “[Willem of Orange](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149379/#comment)” > > I think the subtitles are in dutch and Flemish only, but maybe their is a version with English It’s on Youtube, actually, split up into parts. But there are no subtitles; I’ll have to rely on my already-limited command of German to attempt to make sense of the Dutch spoken by the actors. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/28 "2009-09-29T02:23:39Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I haven’t heard of that. OK, start with this book, [1632](http://www.amazon.com/1632-Assiti-Shards-Eric-Flint/dp/0671319728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254190846&sr=8-1). Actually, you can read it for free [here](http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0671578499/0671578499.htm). This is a great series, co-written by a number of authors and with a huge canvas. I think you’ll like it. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/29 "2009-09-29T04:36:34Z")
It’s set in the 1500s, but the movie [Nostradamus](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110689/) with Tcheky Karyo really isn’t all that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/30 "2009-09-29T09:09:30Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > 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. Sorry for the hijack, but in that case I feel myself in the duty to inform any of our esteemed readers who didn’t know that the author’s novels (including the series on which the movie was based) have been translated to [English](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=reverte&x=0&y=0). Alatriste is the only long series he has; there’s “archaeologist detective” books, “priest detective” books, memoirs of a war correspondent (which he was for many years), collections of articles. One of the reasons I loved “la piel del tambor” (“the skin on the drum”), which I don’t see on the list, is because the trigger for the action is someone hacking into the Vatican’s computers and he makes it sound believable (no walking into a humid basement to find sixteen monitors on a computer you need US Gov permission to buy); he learned about the subject before actually writing about it and asked his experts to review that part, which I’ve found he always does. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828/31 "2009-09-29T09:49:23Z")
**Argent** , you \*have \*read Neal Stepehnson’s \*Baroque Cycle \*right? Because it features virtually every important event and character of late-17th Century Europe and beyond, depicted with a very unique POV and writing style. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-set-in-europe-during-the-1600s/511828.md?page=1)