Favorite Period Movies.

I like to watch movies. Especially on Sundays, when the weather is dark and gloomy, such as November tends to be this far up north. I like to get up, make myself coffee and fresh warm bread roles, curl up with a blanket on my red sofa and get lost in other worlds.

I would like to list my top 10 favorite period movies:


1) Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet
I have already dedicated a post to this movie and it is by far my all time favorite movie and will remain so. In my opinion the best adaptation of this tragic love story I have ever seen.

2) Bram Stoker's Dracula
The 1992 version is the most visually stunning one. I almost cannot breath watching this film; it is so very touching and overwhelming, depicting true love that stretched across centuries. My favorite movie of this genre, even if it should perhaps be classified more appropriately as a horror-romance.

3) Dangerous Beauty
A wonderful movie, starring Catherine McCormack, playing an innocent girl, who becomes a Venetian courtesan in order to be with the man she loves. I have seen it numerous times and still love the lightness of the piece, mixed with humor, but still depicting the deep severity of the 16th century Venice.

4) Ivanhoe
I think this movie never made to the big screen, but I have watched it at least dozen times on television as a young teenager. In Sweden it became a tradition to send it around Christmas and I never missed it. It was the most romantic love story to a naive girl I was then, but I have to admit, I would watch it still. Olivia Hussey is my favorite actress of all times and I love to see her portraying Rebecca and I was –of course- in love with Anthony Andrews.;)

5) The Other Boleyn Girl
I saw it this morning for the first time, but definitely not the last. It was a gift from my Irishman and cried my eyes out watching it. The story, adapted from a historical novel by the same name, written by Philippa Gregory, depicts the sibling’s rivalry between two sisters, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, who compete for the affection of King Henry VIII, but both for different reasons. The story though goes deeper than that, showing ambition, greed, love, the position of women at that time and of course, love between sisters. I can wholeheartedly recommend this movie.

6) The Four Musketeers
Since I was a child, I loved this 1974 adaptation of the famous Dumas’s novel.

7) Pride and Prejudice
8)Sense and Sensibility
I have always loved and enjoyed Jane Austin novels. Many of them have been made into television series and movies, but none of them (to me at least) seemed to have been quite right, except for the two listed here. I think Keira Knightley’s portrays Elizabeth Bennett exactly as I have always imagined her in my mind, when reading the Austin novel. And the dashing Matthew Macfadyen was perfect as Mr. Darcy. I love the lightness of the movie and I love the way that scenes intersected and flow into each other, all in perfect harmony creating and building up the tension in a wonderful way.
I saw Sense and Sensibility when it was new and it touched something in me, I liked the casting and the portrayal of the good and bad, and the vanity in people. And of course I love happy endings.

9) Girl with a Pearl Earring
I love this movie as I love the connection between fiction and reality. I never read the book, although I recently read another book written by Tracy Chevalier, "The Lady and the Unicorn". I would see it if it was ever adapted to a movie. Almost every scene in the Girl with a Pearl Earring felt like watching paintings. A visual masterpiece and I just cannot help but admire Scarlet Johansson and her performance, definitely my kind of movie.


10) Vanity Fair
Another gift from my Irishman, this movie was recommended to me by him. I think more than anything, I will never forget the colors and the amazing costumes in ever scene. A movie I would like to watch again, as I think it is deeper than one might think at first.