My Top Period Movies

I have this compulsive need to make lists. I struggled in vain to narrow down the list of period films that I've featured on this site to compile a "Top Ten". On C19, the question was asked, "What are your top 5?" which made me realize that although I could not limit my faves to only 5, I could at least make a list of 5 groupings. It's a cop out I know...

If I could hand out the Oscars, these would be the worthy recipients.

So here are the films that make my Top 10, or 20 or so...

1. I love the adaptations based on Elizabeth Gaskell. Austen got me hooked on period dramas but the Gaskell series move me emotionally and capture such sweet moments that they get my #1 vote. That includes my favourite drama Wives and Daughters, North and South, and Cranford! I love the ladies of Cranford!




2. It seems too obvious to state but almost anything by Jane Austen (P&P '95, S&S '95 with an approving nod to the 2008 series, Amanda Root's Persuasion, Frances O'Connor's Mansfield Park, and Gwyneth's Emma. I also was pleasantly surprised by Northanger Abbey!) or any of the variations on Jane Austen (Lost in Austen, Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets!)




3. I've discovered a new appreciation for anything Dickensian! (Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, and of course Bella and John in Our Mutual Friend!)






4. I also would like to give a vote to my homegirl, Lucy Maude Montgomery and the classic Anne of Green Gables (1&2 but not 3 or the latest prequel) and the enchanting series of Road to Avonlea!




5. Honourable mentions: Other miniseries that I would have to include are Berkeley Square, Forsyte Saga, Daniel Deronda, The Lost Prince, Buccaneers, Jane Eyre(2006) and Marguerite Volant, all of which held me captivated! I'd also have to include all the historical films based on the British monarchy especially The Young Victoria! Other films that have captivated me are Bright Star and The Fall!

Movies of British Royalty


Bright Star

Berkeley Square

Daniel Deronda

The Lost Prince


The Forsyte Saga

Marguerite Volant

Jane Eyre

The Buccaneers


The Fall


Going Postal

The Inheritance


The Magic of Ordinary Days

Just for Fun

~ Index to trifles, trivialities and tomfoolery ~

Hall of Fame honours some of the people who show up in multiple dramas and seem to define this genre either on screen or behind the scenes.

It's all Relative ~ explores the family connections of husbands and wives who are in the business, actors that are related and keep popping up in period dramas.

Period Motivational Posters (tweaking P&P, North & South, and others...)

Look-alikes Having fun looking at those actors that could pass as relatives or is it just me that thinks so?

Six Degrees of Separation highlights those funny coincidences of how closely connected the actors are to each other.For instance, can you connect Helena Bonham Carter with Romola Garai?(2 degrees of separation with Charlotte Rampling as the common link...)


Austenbook: The plot of P&P told through a facebook news feed


My wishful thinking of a redesigned Canada

Matchmaking 101: 20 tips to snag a husband (lessons gleaned from period dramas)

Twelve little-known facts about Jane Austen humourous article in the London Telegraph

Pride and Prejudice Duo Speech Saw this on Ribbons of Light and think you might like to check it out if you haven't already seen this funny interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. Apparently, they are not allowed to touch or look at each other as they give their Duo Speech - I just get a kick out of their dancing!

Pride and Prejudice in "twitterspeak".I am still confounded by the popularity of Twitter. I am also finding my brain trying to wrap around the fact that Jane Austen can be found there in various forms. Laurel Ann from Austenprose has reminded me that Jane would have probably loved to twit and tweet or whatever it is that one does on Twitter. I am still perplexed by it all, however this endeavour by "Mad" found Under the Mad Hat is quite amusing! She has summed up the plot of P&P in tweets. I am excessively diverted!

Richard Armitage Dancing (becuz it's fun to see Mr. Thornton jive)

The Jane Austen Drinking Game (who knew that guys appreciated Jane Austen?)

Collins Inducted into Hall of Obscurity (profiling of the various Mr. Collins)

Funny Film Remakes (from worth1000.com)

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the Drive-Thru
(I got a good laugh especially seeing it soon after I watched John Adams the mini-series)

Chatter between characters of North &South and Pride &Prejudice
Mr. Thornton and Darcy have a chat while Lizzie offers advice to Margaret Hale

Can you Place the Face (identify actors from older photos)? Part 1, Part 2

FASHION - Index

Period Costumes (some of the gorgeous outfits we've seen in film)

More Period Fashions (from Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute)

Edwardian Period costumes of Downton Abbey

Period Costume Dress Up (links to sites with online & paper dolls)


Recycled Period Costumes
(for those outfits that show up in more than one film...)
Recycled Costumes - more discoveries


Period Fashion Timelines

Whose Hat Is It Anyway?
Can you identify the film just from viewing the hat?

Antique jewellery - gallery #1

Tirelli Costume Company: video, gallery of pictures
(Oscar-winning design house for countless films)

Embroidered Jacket 17th century (work of art!)

Drew Barrymore - Vogue shoot

Emily Blunt - Vanity Fair shoot

Coco Before Chanel - interview with director

Sandy Powell - costume designer

Janet Patterson - costume designer

Colleen Atwood - costume designer

Crawford Manor - dolls based on historic & literary characters


~ Here are some great sites that I still haven't fully explored ~

Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes

Recycled Period Costumes

Period Film Review
She has screencaps (some shown here) and great pics of selected outfits.

Louise Macdonald Milliner
Hat designer for such films as P&P, Howard's End, Remains of the Day

L'histoire des Modes
A source for links, images, and commentary on the history of fashion
and costume in Europe and America through the ages.

démodé
Historical costumes

Fashion-era.com
Tons of information

Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute

Regency Reproductions

McCord Museum
Mix and match fashion of 19th century

The Costumer's Manifesto - Costumes.org
vintage, Victorian, movie costumes, costume history

Costumes from The Young Victoria,
(Sandy Powell won for Best Costume Design - 2010 Oscars)

If artists had more paint...

Worth1000.com challenged members to take an existing painting and add to it,
filling in what was happening "off-camera".
Here are some of the entries for Beyond the Canvas [if artists had more paint]

Lady of Shalott, altered by Mishikal

Whistler's Mother's Stories by gerace

I'd Scream Too! by Irishbryan

Macdonald's Art by tbisdorf

Starving Artists Sale by Redcard

loins du pay...et plus by Koosricardo


See more period paintings at Gallery of Selective Artwork

Emma, Little Dorrit, etc

Darn! It appears that Matthew Macfadyen has been cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the upcoming Robin Hood with Russell Crowe. I say darn, not because of MM who is an enchanting actor but because I really didn't want to see Robin Hood since Russell Crowe is one of my least favourite actors. Now that the cast includes Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Strong, William Hurt and Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea, love that group!), it looks like I might have to take in this flick after all! Perhaps I will soften my attitude towards the Crowster...
[thanks to Lights, Camera...History for this update!]

btw, have you heard Matthew reciting Sonnet 29?

New pics
for the current production of BBC's Emma
with Romola Garai & Jodhi May
can be found at Pemberley

Next week will be the last installment of Little Dorrit on PBS and if you haven't seen this video linked on here already, I'm mentioning it again since I thought it was quite funny especially after being terrified of Blandois...

Video of Sharp-Dressed Man

Thank you to Jane at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing for recognizing me with the Lovely Blog Award. I'm truly flattered!

Britain's Got Talent: I'm assuming most people have seen Susan Boyle's video by now. (Her video has been over 12 million views in 11 days!)

Have you see Shaheen Jafargholi's auditon? I was surprised to see Simon give a standing ovation.

Web of Films - Little Dorrit

Admittedly a little obsessed with making lists, I was looking at the cast of Little Dorrit and noticing how many familiar faces popped up that I recognized from other period films, sooooo...

Here's a list of some of the actors from Little Dorrit and their previous period films

...so far I've counted 116!!!
[thanks to feedback from others]

(If anyone would like to challenge Little Dorrit
in this "contest" of number of period films
and their score of 113, feel free to do so!)

This gorgeous wallpaper can be found at Fields of Green

I'll begin with Robert Hardy who has been more productive in his career (with 26 period films) than Mr. Barnacle ever was at the Circumlocution Office!

Robert Hardy

Margaret, Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, Le grand Charles, Bertie and Elizabeth, Shackleton, The Lost World, The 10th Kingdom, An Ideal Husband, Mrs Dalloway, Gulliver's Travels, Sense & Sensibility, Frankenstein, Middlemarch, All Creatures Great and Small, War and Remembrance, The Woman He Loved, Northanger Abbey, The Shooting Party, Zany Adventures of Robin Hood, The Cleopatras, Winston Churchill**, Twelfth Night, Elizabeth R, Daniel Deronda (same role that Hugh Bonneville played in later version), David Copperfield
[**Hardy has played Churchill in 5 different films]








Matthew Macfadyen
Robin Hood, Pillars of the Earth, Enid Blyton, Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye,
Frost/Nixon, P&P, Way We Live Now, Enigma, Wuthering Heights

Tom Courtenay
The Golden Compass, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop,
Let Him Have It, Doctor Zhivago

Alan Armstrong
Garrow's Law, Filth, Bleak House, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield,
Sleepy Hollow, Onegin, Aristocrats, Braveheart, Black Beauty

Judy Parfitt
Dean Spanley, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Ever After,
Berkeley Square, Pride and Prejudice

Eddie Marsan
Sherlock Holmes, 39 Steps, Me and Orson Welles, The Illusionist,
The New World, Beowulf & Grendel, The Last Hangman, Vera Drake,
Charles II, Gangs of New York,
The Emperor's New Clothes, Crime and Punishment

Andy Serkis
Freezing Time, Inkheart, Einstein & Eddington, LOTR,
Longford, King Kong, Oliver Twist, Topsy Turvy

James Fleet
Cock and Bull Story, Phantom of the Opera, Two Men Went to War, Young Arthur, Charlotte Gray,
The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything, A Dance to the Music of Time,
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, Sense and Sensibility

Bill Paterson
Miss Potter, Amazing Grace, Bright Young Things, Doctor Zhivago, Wives & Daughters, Sunshine,
Hilary and Jackie, Chaplin,The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Killing Fields

Pam Ferris
Within the Whirlwind, Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Pollyanna, Nicholas Nickleby,
The Turn of the Screw, Our Mutual Friend, Middlemarch

Harriet Walter
From Time to Time, Cheri, The Young Victoria, Ballet Shoes, Atonement, Onegin,
The Governess, Dance to the Music of Time, George Eliot, Macbeth,
Sense & Sensibility, Dorothy Sayers Mysteries

Ron Cook
Loyalty and Duty, Sharpe's Honour




Related post: Six Degrees of Separation