Lesser known period films
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29 titles
- DirectorLucian PintilieStarsKristin Scott ThomasClaudiu BleontOlga TudoracheRomania in the 1920s. Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) refuses the advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a dark and dangerous outpost on the frontier between Bulgaria and Romania where their relationship and humanity are severely tested.
- DirectorClaude MillerStarsCécile de FrancePatrick BruelLudivine SagnierA 15-year-old boy unearths a shocking family secret.
- DirectorPat O'ConnorStarsColin FirthKenneth BranaghJohn AtkinsonTwo soldiers (Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh) recover from World War I while spending a summer in a Yorkshire village.
- DirectorJulia Taylor-StanleyStarsCharlotte LucasCraig RookeJulia McKenzieA struggling young actress, a fledgling director and an ambitious playwright become embroiled in an emotional love triangle as they strive for recognition, fame and fortune in a world on the brink of World War II.
- CreatorRosemary Anne SissonFrank MarshallStarsNorman RodwayBarbara MurrayBelinda Lang1920s family of actors deals with the day to day of the theater business.
- DirectorChristophe BarratierStarsGérard JugnotClovis CornillacKad MeradWhen Chansonia, a nightclub, is shut down by the landlord, the stage manager Pigoil is forced to look for a new job. He finds hope when he discovers a young woman with a lovely singing voice.
- DirectorBenoît JacquotStarsIsabelle AdjaniStanislas MerharJean YanneThe action takes place at the turn of the 19th Century. Adolphe (Stanislas Merhar) is a carefree, somewhat jaded 22-year-old, scion of a preeminent aristocratic family, with a very promising political career ahead of him. To Adolphe, love means conquest, and since he is bored, love is a good pastime. At a soirée given by the Count (Jean Yanne) in his sumptuous castle, Adolphe sets his eyes on the beautiful Ellénore (Isabelle Adjani), a young widow, ten years his elder, mother of two children. She also happens to be the Count's mistress. Adolphe falls in love with Ellénore, for lack of a better thing to do. At first, Ellénore resists Adolphe's feverish advances. He insists, becoming an overwhelming presence (and nuisance) in Ellénore's life. Eventually, she surrenders. Soon after, the novelty of this adventure wearing out, Adolphe tries to liberate himself from his new lover, who has become a burden in his life, an obstacle to his freedom. However, he cannot bring himself to altogether sever his relationship with Ellénore, as the idea of making her suffer is to him unbearable. Ellénore loses everything as she tries desperately to "hang onto" her lover: her children, the Count's protection, her status in society. For his part, Adolphe's life is in limbo, as he is unable to break once and for all with his now dying love affair. He offends his father, who demands his return to a more conventional life, and he abhors his own indecisiveness, his inability to end his love affair and regain his freedom. What follows is the fallout of an obsessive relationship: unbearable guilt, accusations, and poison letters of recriminations between the two parties. Eventually this emotional charade ends up in death and misery.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsLouis DucreuxMichel AumontSabine AzémaAn elderly painter whose son visits with his family on the weekends, is also surprised by a visit from his still-single daughter.
- DirectorReverge AnselmoStarsKirsten DunstJulie WaltersGeraldine JamesA younger boy falls in love with a tragic girl who flirts with, and manipulates, her older suitors in 1800s Russia.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudKika MarkhamStacey TendeterAt the beginning of the 20th century, middle-class young Frenchman Claude Roc meets young Englishwoman Ann Brown in Paris. They become friends and she invites him to spend holidays at the house where she lives with her mother and her sister Muriel, for whom she intends Claude. During these holidays, Claude, Ann, and Muriel become very close and he gradually falls in love with Muriel. But both families lay down a one-year-long separation with no contact before agreeing to the marriage. So Claude goes back to Paris and has many love affairs before sending Muriel a break-off letter.
- DirectorFiorella InfascelliStarsHelena Bonham CarterMichael MaloneyFeodor Chaliapin Jr.A debauched nobleman offers himself to a beautiful woman, but she is repelled by his advances. He dons a mask and tries again, and this time is more successful. But the mask cannot conceal the evil in his soul.
- DirectorDover KoshashviliStarsAndrew ScottFiona GlascottTobias MenziesIn ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL, escalating animosity between two men with opposing philosophies of life is played out against the backdrop of a decaying seaside resort along the Black Sea coast. Laevsky is a dissipated romantic given to gambling and flirtation. He has run off to the sea with beautiful, emotionally empty, Nadia, another man's wife. Laevsky has now grown tired of her, but two obstacles block his route to escape: he is broke, and he faces the absolute enmity of Von Koren, an arrogant zoologist and former friend who can no longer tolerate Laevsky's irresponsibility. Soon Laevsky confronts Von Koren, accusing him of meddling in his affairs, but Von Koren maneuvers a criticism Laevsky makes of their mutual friend, Dr. Samoylenko, into a challenge to a duel. Utterly discombobulated and honor bound, Laevsky agrees to this absurdity -- a duel it shall be! A duel as comically inadvertent as it is inevitable.
- DirectorJean-Paul RappeneauStarsIsabelle AdjaniGérard DepardieuVirginie LedoyenAn actress, a writer, a student, and a government worker band together in an effort to escape Paris as the Germans move into the city.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsMarcello MastroianniSilvana ManganoMarthe KellerAn Italian tells his story of love to a Russian. In a series of flashbacks, Romano Patroni leaves his wife to visit a spa where he falls in love with a Russian woman. He returns to Italy resolved to leave his wife and marry his love.
- StarsMel MartinChristopher BlakeSherrie HewsonA coming-of-age story perceived from the acts and feelings of Edward Richardson, a junior journalist who falls deeply in love with the enchanting and reckless Lydia Aspen, heiress of the welthy but on-decline Aspen family.
- DirectorBernd EichingerStarsNina HossHeiner LauterbachMathieu CarrièreA historical drama set in the 1950s, based on real-life events. Rosemarie Nitribitt comes out of a remand center, runs away from her foster parents, and ends up working as a barmaid in a Frankfurt nightclub. A wealthy French businessman offers to set her up in return for tape-recordings of her sex sessions with German VIPs.
- DirectorFernando ColomoStarsMatthew GoodeVerónica SánchezGuillermo ToledoIn 1919, demobbed Gerald Brenan rents a house for a year in Yegen, a village in Alpujarra. He has little but a love of reading and writing. He's soon the center of attention from his maid María, who has a marriageable daughter, Ángeles; from Paco, who offers to guide Gerald in the ways of love and the village; and from his landlady, her friend who loves St. Teresa, the town priest, and teen beauty Julia who's the daughter of a witch. Gerald must sort out his feelings and face down the machinations of the town's women, who map a future he doesn't want. What he wants is romance. How far from his class and country can he venture, and for how long?
- DirectorMarleen GorrisStarsJohn TurturroEmily WatsonGeraldine JamesTwo worlds collide when an eccentric genius falls in love with a strong-willed society beauty.
- DirectorJohn IrvinStarsJoan PlowrightMia FarrowNatasha RichardsonIn 1934, an English widow moves to Widows' Peak, Ireland. She befriends other widows and the son of one. Hostility escalates between her and an Irish spinster.
- DirectorPeter HammondStarsPhyllis CalvertDaniel ChattoJoJo ColeA young orphan girl, Portia, goes to live with her well-to-do aunt and uncle. As she is groomed to become a lady, she is confused by the young man who seems to be courting her. Surrounded by pretentious people who have no clue how to deal with teenagers, she soon loses her naïveté and thinks of running away.
- DirectorChristopher MorahanStarsMichael GambonPatricia HodgeMichael YorkIn World War II England, a woman is approached by a man claiming to work as an intelligence agent who has found out her lover is a spy. He promises to not arrest him if she'll have a relationship with him.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsAnjelica HustonDonal McCannHelena CarrollGabriel Conroy and wife Gretta attend an early January dinner with friends at the home of his spinster aunts, an evening which results in an epiphany for both of them.
- StarsEdwige FeuillèreFrançoise FabianFrancis HusterA few years before the start of World War One, Fanny, a naive young girl from a French bourgeois family enters a love triangle with her two cousins, Raoul and Marcel. Neither the three young people nor their families will be spared by the horrors of WWI...
- DirectorOndrej TrojanStarsAnna GeislerováGyörgy CserhalmiIvan TrojanA nurse is part of the resistance in 1940s Czech Republic. She is discovered and must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
- DirectorDover KoshashviliStarsAndrew ScottFiona GlascottTobias MenziesIn ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL, escalating animosity between two men with opposing philosophies of life is played out against the backdrop of a decaying seaside resort along the Black Sea coast. Laevsky is a dissipated romantic given to gambling and flirtation. He has run off to the sea with beautiful, emotionally empty, Nadia, another man's wife. Laevsky has now grown tired of her, but two obstacles block his route to escape: he is broke, and he faces the absolute enmity of Von Koren, an arrogant zoologist and former friend who can no longer tolerate Laevsky's irresponsibility. Soon Laevsky confronts Von Koren, accusing him of meddling in his affairs, but Von Koren maneuvers a criticism Laevsky makes of their mutual friend, Dr. Samoylenko, into a challenge to a duel. Utterly discombobulated and honor bound, Laevsky agrees to this absurdity -- a duel it shall be! A duel as comically inadvertent as it is inevitable.