These Are the Best Romantic Period Movies — Period
I love these films, ardently.
Oh, how I wish for romance!
How I wish to swoon, to palpitate, to rip free from my corset and gasp breathlessly in the cool English night. I grow tired of spending my evenings vying for the affections of digital druids and rogues, no matter how handsome they may be. Nor do I wish to wile away my hours watching the often absurd but oddly arousing trysts that occur between alien beings in a galaxy far, far away.
I wish to find real fantasy love. How my heart pines for parlor rooms, long stretches in the English country, carriage rides, and tea parties! and these films? these films give me exactly what I’m looking for.
Ammonite (2020)
With a smattering of lesbian love, anything is possible! Francis Lee’s Ammonite centers around an acclaimed paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), who begins a passionate affair with Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), a young woman sent to the seaside to recover from illness. This film does the impossible, it makes dreary English beaches look romantic. Set in the 1840s, Ammonite delicately explores how a beautiful love can blossom in the ugliest of places.
Titanic (1997)
James Cameron’s epic about the ill-fated vessel proved to be the sexual awakening of an entire generation. STOP LYING AND ADMIT IT! The story of Titanic concerns a poor artist named Jack Dawson who falls in love with the upper-class Rose DeWitt Bukater while onboard the Titanic during its doomed 1912 voyage. Rose is engaged to an absolute cad of a man and is soon charmed by the handsome Jack. The pair then make love in an automobile! Oh, how risque! And then, well … bad things happen to the ship and its crew.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Director Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice is a vivacious interpretation of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novel! Keira Knightley plays the witty and headstrong Elizabeth Bennet, perfectly complementing Matthew Macfadyen’s brooding portrayal of Mr. Darcy. Set in the English countryside, the story is perhaps the greatest enemies-to-lovers tale ever told. The initially chilly relationship between the pair soon thaws with the heat of true, ardent love.
Atonement (2007)
Joe Wright gives, and Joe Wright takes away! While Pride and Prejudice is a beautiful tale of love’s labors won, Atonement is a decade-spanning epic concerning love’s labors lost. The film centers around the wealthy Tallis family, who live in an estate in the English countryside during World War II. Young Briony Tallis (played by Saoirse Ronan) falsely accuses her sister Cecilia’s (Keira Knightley) lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) of a horrid crime he didn’t commit. This lie dramatically alters the course of all three lives, and results in devastating consequences for the trio. The romance comes not from what was, but from what could have been.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Who knew that tender hearts could beat in such rough men? Directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain is a groundbreaking film that portrays the secret romantic relationship between two cowboys Ennis and Jack, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Set in the 1960s, the pair slowly begin to fall head over spurs for one another, knowing all the while that the world will never accept them. Brokeback Mountain served as one of the first LGBT films to find mainstream success, blazing a trail for subsequent gay cinema to follow.
Carol (2015)
Todd Haynes’ Carol is an adaptation of the lesbian required reading novel The Price of Salt. Set in glamorous 1950s New York, the film concerns a secret romance between Rooney Mara’s Therese, a young photographer, and Cate Blanchett’s Carol, a sophisticated older woman. The pair are forced to navigate the oppressive social restraints of the time, all the while maintaining their delicate romance.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Ang Lee directs this adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility, which stars Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as the Dashwood sisters. Set in 19th-century England, the pair navigate romantic and financial hardships after the death of their beloved father. The logical Elinor Dashwood’s approach to love often conflicts with the emotional approach of her sister Marianne, and the pair struggle to find a middle ground that will allow them both to achieve romantic happiness.
Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)
Oh, how I wish that I could journey far from the madding crowd! Particularly the crowds of finance bros that haunt the bars of my city. Thomas Vinterberg’s Far from the Madding Crowd offers a glimpse into this sort of life, in which Carey Mulligan’s Bathsheba must navigate her independence alongside her romantic feelings for three remarkably different suitors in rural 19th century England. It’s like a rural version of The Bachelorette—with fewer firemen.
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence breathes life into the high society of 1870s New York. In this adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, Daniel Day-Lewis plays Newland Archer. Newland is a man torn between his arranged marriage to May (Winona Ryder) and his passionate love for her cousin, the salacious Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). But whom shall he choose? At least Ellen is not HIS cousin, like in so many other period dramas.
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Finally, a story about one of the finest romance authors the world has ever seen, The Bard himself! Written by Marc Norman and acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love tells the tale of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), who is plagued by writer’s block while working on the unfortunately titled Romeo and Ethel. After noblewoman Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) auditions for his company disguised as a man named Thomas Kent, Shakespeare is smitten. He is subsequently struck with romantic inspiration! His budding romance with Viola fuels his muse and allows him to write his greatest romance—Romeo and Juliet.
(featured image: Focus Features)
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