The 6 Period Dramas I’m Watching All Winter Long

Elizabeth, 1998

Cate Blanchett’s outstanding performance as England’s Queen Elizabeth I cemented her status as one of the best actors of her generation, while supporting actors Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Christopher Eccleston, John Gielgud and Richard Attenborough read like a who’s who of British period dramas. The movie traces the trajectory of Lady Elizabeth, the imprisoned daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, who rises to power after the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I. Inheriting a country facing debts, treason within her cabinet and combative neighbors, she faces a disastrous military campaign. She also unites the Church of England, survives an assassination attempt and escapes an unwanted marriage to ascend to the throne as “the Virgin Queen.” The film was nominated for and won numerous awards worldwide, while being both visually stunning and offering a glimpse into a rarely explored era of British history.

Vanity Fair, 2004

William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 novel, Vanity Fair, was reinterpreted in a new light by director Mira Nair’s (Monsoon Wedding) 2004 adaptation. While Thackeray portrays heroine Becky Sharp as a ruthless social climber, Nair’s version, starring Reese Witherspoon, tries to reconcile her perceived negative traits with the positive — yes, she’s manipulative and shrewd, but she’s also intelligent, fascinating and focused. Becky Sharp is the poor orphan of a painter who goes to work as a governess and uses her role as a launching pad to climb the ranks of society. In the end, she realizes that everything she attained comes with a price, yet continues to reach forward to provide herself with a comfortable life. Critics complained about the modernization of her character, but this lens lets us see the many competing views of what it means to be a woman.

Jane Eyre, 2011

Charlotte Brontë’s gothic novel is one of Hollywood’s most-adapted, first debuting as a silent movie in 1910 and restyled around the globe over the next century. Cary Fukunaga’s 2011 telling of the story, starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane, Michael Fassbender as Rochester, and Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, is nuanced and thematically layered, not to mention beautiful. After being abused by her aunt and cousins and then sent away to a horrific boarding school, the movie’s eponymous character lands at Thornfield, a remote estate where she’s hired as a governess for the brooding Mr. Rochester’s ward. Set against a stunning backdrop of barren moors, the two enjoy a bantering relationship that smolders into something more, all while strange things keep happening at Thornfield. While other versions of the movie focus on Rochester’s dashing yet cynical personality, this version delves into the complex layers of Jane herself, who upholds her morals while striving for the freedom to make her own choices.

Far From the Madding Crowd, 2015

In rural southwest England, Bethsheba Everdene has inherited her uncle’s farm and, as a wealthy landowner, attracts three very different suitors (or, from the critique of one Redditor, “What the actual f*** was with this woman and her choices of men?”). Bethsheba (Carey Mulligan) must choose between the stoic but steadfast shepherd Gabriel Oak, the reckless cad Sargent Francis Troy, and the wealthy but older William Boldwood. Dazzled by the bad boy, Bethsheba marries Troy, who is actually in love with Bethsheba’s servant, Fanny, who dies giving birth to Troy’s baby. Troy disappears, so Bethsheba takes up with Boldwood, only to have Boldwood return to claim his place. In the fallout, Gabriel finally has the opportunity to take center stage, showing Bethsheba he was there all along.

Belle, 2013

This movie was inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the biracial daughter of Royal Navy Captain Sir John Lindsey and an enslaved African woman, Maria Belle, in the West Indies. After the death of her mother, Lindsey takes his daughter to London, entrusting her care to his uncle, William Murray, Earl of Mansfield and Lord Chief Justice. Belle is raised as a free gentlewoman alongside her financially destitute cousin, and the two have a portrait painted that depicts them as social equals. Belle becomes an heiress but can’t come out in society or marry a gentleman due to her race; meanwhile, Lord Mansfield hears the case of an insurance claim for slaves who were killed when they were thrown overboard by the captain of a slave ship. Dido falls for her uncle’s law student, John, and offers her cousin part of her inheritance so she can find a good love match. While many period films set in the era skirt the major political topics of the day (like race relations), Belle shows that there were people who successfully flew in the face of convention.

Have you seen any of the above? Let us know in the comments below.