Victorian-set movies
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Five Victorian-Set Movies to Enjoy
This time, the movies (except one) travel a little farther afield than dear old England ~ Sicily, Florence, Paris, and New York. The Leopard (1963) Director: Luchino Visconti. The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860’s Sicily. Starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) Director: Max Ophüls. In the Paris of the late 19th century, Louise, wife of a general, sells the earrings her husband gave her as a wedding gift: she needs money to cover her debts. The general secretly buys the earrings…
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Victorian Time Travel: H G Wells vs. Jack the Ripper
So on New Year’s Day, I traveled back in time. To be accurate, I watched the 1979 movie “Time after Time,” starring Malcolm MacDowell, David Warner and Mary Steenburgen. It was mind-blowing, being flung 37 years into the past, all the way back to the late 70s. Well, back to the late 1800s as well. In the movie, the late Victorian era is portrayed as gritty and dangerous, the gaslit alleyways hiding the specter of hideous death in the form of disease, deprivation, and Jack the Ripper. H.G. Wells is portrayed not as a fantastic storyteller bur as an actual Victorian inventor who built a working time machine. When his…
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15 Victorian-set Movies and TV shows to Watch
If you’re looking for visual and aural inspiration about the clothing, manners and day-to-day activities of Victorian people, the following movies and TV miniseries will help you! Here are fifteen of my favorite choices. The painting at left is so typical of the Aesthetic period, with the blue and white china, the color scheme, and the young woman’s distinctively pre-Raphaelite eyebrows, that I thought I’d just add it here. 1. North & South (2004 TV mini-series) BBC production starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. Based on the novel by Elizabet Gaskell, this is the story of Margaret Hale, a gently-bred parson’s daughter from the pastoral South of England who is…
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SHOWCASE: Victorian Movies and TV Shows
This is the first installment of the Showcase of Victorian Movies and TV Shows. Over the years, there has been an abundance of movies, miniseries and TV shows that have been set in England during the Victorian era. Original fiction as well as the works of Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, the Bronte sisters, and Elizabeth Gaskell have all been presented on the large and small screen. So what shows can you seek out for your Victorian inspiration? Today, we’ll discuss the BBC’s 2004 miniseries, “North and South,” starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. A four-part series, with each episode lasting about 1 hour. Based on the novel by Elizabet Gaskell,…
