Good historical films
by rainyoak | created - 20 Sep 2018 | updated - 06 Jan 2019 | Publicin the way the past is portrayed
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1. The Duellists (1977)
PG | 100 min | Drama, War
France, 1801. Due to a minor perceived slight, mild-mannered Lieutenant d'Hubert is forced into a duel with hot-headed irrational Lieutenant Feraud. The disagreement ultimately results in scores of duels spanning several years.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Albert Finney, Edward Fox
Votes: 26,689 | Gross: $0.20M
2. The Princess of Montpensier (2010)
Not Rated | 139 min | Action, Drama, History
Based on the classic didactic novel, the action centers on the noble lady who soon becomes exposed to the sexual and political intrigues of the French court of the religious wars era.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Mélanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Votes: 4,284 | Gross: $0.34M
3. Le roi danse (2000)
115 min | Drama, History, Music
Corbiau repeats the Farinelli formula, artistic rivalry and social private drama expressed in dazzling, sometimes excessively lavish baroque scenery, music and costume, but this time in its... See full summary »
Director: Gérard Corbiau | Stars: Benoît Magimel, Boris Terral, Tchéky Karyo, Colette Emmanuelle
Votes: 2,398
4. Vatel (2000)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama, History
Vatel is the cook of Prince Condé. When the prince invites Louis XIV to hunt, he has to give lavish banquets in order to fall in his favor. But when Vatel falls in love with the king's mistress, love and duty come into conflict.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Julian Glover
Votes: 8,250 | Gross: $0.05M
5. Louis: The Child King (1993)
160 min | Biography, Drama, History
The title of this major French costume drama means "Louis, child-king", and indeed it's a fascinating fresco about the formative years of the young king Louis XIV, before he became the ... See full summary »
Director: Roger Planchon | Stars: Carmen Maura, Maxime Mansion, Paolo Graziosi, Jocelyn Quivrin
Votes: 300
6. The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne-Louise Lambert, Hugh Fraser
Votes: 11,077
7. Queen Margot (1994)
R | 161 min | Biography, Drama, History
Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.
Director: Patrice Chéreau | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez
Votes: 18,987 | Gross: $2.02M
8. Henri 4 (2010)
155 min | Biography, Drama, War
A wide-ranging, energetic period piece tracing the rise of the Protestant Henry of Navarre as he goes from battlefield warrior to France's beloved King Henri IV. Director Jo Baier's epic is... See full summary »
Director: Jo Baier | Stars: Julien Boisselier, Joachim Król, Andreas Schmidt, Roger Casamajor
Votes: 1,365
9. Beatrice (1987)
R | 130 min | Drama
In Medieval France, a warrior returns home after four years of war and captivity. It is his delicate daughter who must deal now with his rage and frustration.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Julie Delpy, Nils Tavernier, Monique Chaumette
Votes: 778 | Gross: $0.21M
10. The Lion in Winter (1968)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.
Director: Anthony Harvey | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle
Votes: 34,197 | Gross: $22.28M
11. A Royal Affair (2012)
R | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young queen, who is married to an insane king, falls secretly in love with her physician - and together they start a revolution that changes a nation forever.
Director: Nikolaj Arcel | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Trine Dyrholm
Votes: 50,710 | Gross: $1.55M
12. The Girl King (2015)
Not Rated | 106 min | Biography, Drama, History
THE GIRL KING paints a portrait of the brilliant, extravagant Kristina of Sweden, queen from age six, who fights the conservative forces that are against her ideas to modernize Sweden and who have no tolerance for her awakening sexuality.
Director: Mika Kaurismäki | Stars: Malin Buska, Sarah Gadon, Michael Nyqvist, Lucas Bryant
Votes: 4,467
13. Farewell, My Queen (2012)
R | 100 min | Drama, History, Romance
A look at the platonic relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her female readers during the first days of the French Revolution.
Director: Benoît Jacquot | Stars: Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Virginie Ledoyen, Noémie Lvovsky
Votes: 9,144 | Gross: $0.07M
14. The Libertine (2004)
R | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work.
Director: Laurence Dunmore | Stars: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Paul Ritter
Votes: 37,764 | Gross: $4.84M
15. Plunkett & Macleane (1999)
R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Two robbers are persecuted by the law, whose servants are not much better and even worse.
Director: Jake Scott | Stars: Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Iain Robertson, Ken Stott
Votes: 10,445 | Gross: $0.47M
16. Stage Beauty (2004)
R | 106 min | Drama
A female theatre dresser creates a stir and sparks a revolution in seventeenth century London theatre by playing Desdemona in Othello. But what will become of the male actor she once worked for and eventually replaced?
Director: Richard Eyre | Stars: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Derek Hutchinson
Votes: 10,738 | Gross: $0.78M
17. Agora (2009)
R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom
Votes: 73,025 | Gross: $0.62M
18. Fellini Satyricon (1969)
R | 129 min | Drama, Fantasy
A series of disjointed mythical tales set in first-century Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone
Votes: 17,185 | Gross: $1.14M
19. Ridicule (1996)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, History
To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Fanny Ardant, Judith Godrèche
Votes: 8,178 | Gross: $2.50M
20. Tulip Fever (2017)
R | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance
An artist falls for a young married woman while he's commissioned to paint her portrait during the Tulip mania of seventeenth century Amsterdam.
Director: Justin Chadwick | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Jack O'Connell, Holliday Grainger
Votes: 22,913 | Gross: $2.43M
21. Nightwatch (1997)
R | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A law student, who takes a job as a night watchman at a morgue, begins to discover clues that implicate him as the suspect of a series of murders.
Director: Ole Bornedal | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte, Anais Evans, Erich Anderson
Votes: 21,300 | Gross: $1.20M
22. The Last King (2003)
TV-14 | 188 min | Biography, Drama, History
The chronicle of Charles II's time on the throne, his ten-year exile from Oliver Cromwell's England, and his triumphant return.
Stars: Rufus Sewell, Rupert Graves, Charlie Creed-Miles, Christian Coulson
Votes: 1,811
23. Outlaw King (2018)
R | 121 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A true David vs. Goliath story of how the 14th century Scottish 'Outlaw King' Robert the Bruce used cunning and bravery to defeat the much larger and better equipped occupying English army.
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Chris Pine, Stephen Dillane, Rebecca Robin, Billy Howle
Votes: 80,890
24. The Mission (1986)
PG | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Eighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aidan Quinn
Votes: 65,661 | Gross: $17.22M
25. The Name of the Rose (1986)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin
Votes: 117,189 | Gross: $7.15M
26. Tous les matins du monde (1991)
Not Rated | 115 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, fierce and somber man, grand master of the viola da gamba and professor of Marin Marais, prestigious musician in the court of Louis XIV.
Director: Alain Corneau | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Anne Brochet, Guillaume Depardieu
Votes: 7,938 | Gross: $3.09M
27. On Guard (1997)
TV-14 | 128 min | Adventure, Drama
The Comte de Gonzague schemes against his cousin, the Duc de Nevers, even though he is the Duke's heir and will inherit his estates. The Count has kept secret the existence of the Duke's ... See full summary »
Director: Philippe de Broca | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Perez, Marie Gillain
Votes: 3,809 | Gross: $0.10M
28. Richelieu: La pourpre et le sang (2014 TV Movie)
100 min | Drama, History
In the Kingdom of France from 1640 is the old with his body ailing Cardinal Richelieu, powerful man under Louis XIII, faced with the machinations of his tipped designated successor, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars.
Director: Henri Helman | Stars: Jacques Perrin, Pierre Boulanger, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié, Hélène Seuzaret
Votes: 114
29. Aristocrats (1999)
TV-14 | 300 min | Drama, History
18th-century England and Ireland viewed through the eyes of four beautiful high-born sisters - Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians and peers.
Stars: Siân Phillips, Alun Armstrong, Ben Daniels, Serena Gordon
Votes: 1,765
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