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Added by Leloi on 22 Jun 2010 04:56
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The Best Period Films You MUST Watch

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People who added this item 986 Average listal rating (556 ratings) 6.9 IMDB Rating 7.1
Becoming Jane (2007)
the untold romance that inspired the novels of one of the world s most celebrated authors. When the dashing Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy, The Last King Of Scotland), a reckless and penniless lawyer-to-be, enters Jane s life, he offends the emerging writer s sense and sensibility. Soon their clashing egos set off sparks that ignite a passionate romance and fuel Jane s dream of doing the unthinkable marrying for love.
People who added this item 1535 Average listal rating (857 ratings) 7.4 IMDB Rating 7.7
When Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave the bulk of his estate to the son by his first marriage, which leaves his second wife and three daughters all but destitute. They are taken in by a kindly cousin, but their lack of fortune affects the marriageability of both practical Elinor and romantic Marianne. When Elinor forms an attachment for the wealthy Edward Ferrars, his family disapproves and separates them. And though Mrs. Jennings tries to match the very rich Colonel Brandon to her, Marianne finds the dashing and fiery Willoughby more to her taste. Will both the sister who is all sense and the one who is all sensibility find their way to true love in this remake of Jane Austin's classic?
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People who added this item 3736 Average listal rating (2504 ratings) 7 IMDB Rating 7.7
Set in Japan during the 1870s, The Last Samurai tells the story of Capt. Nathan Algren, a respected American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the art of modern warfare. As the Emperor attempts to eradicate the ancient Imperial Samurai warriors in preparation for more Westernized and trade-friendly government policies, Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his encounters with the Samurai, which places him at the center of a struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his own sense of honor to guide him.
People who added this item 413 Average listal rating (240 ratings) 6.4 IMDB Rating 6.5
Set at the height of the British empire,Lt. Harry Faversham, a British officer who joined the military to please his career-officer father, but abruptly resigns his commission when his company is slated to ship out to the Sudan to reinforce embattled British troops. He simply doesn’t see the point of killing and dying for the sake of a global empire. Unfortunately Ethne Eustace and Harry’s four best friends don’t understand her fiancé’s decision. Each of whom sends him a symbolic white feather as a contemptuous token of cowardice. When Harry grasps the full social ramifications of what he’s done, he decides that he can’t live with his decision, and heads off to the Sudan on his own, determined to do what he can to help his former regiment against the enemy and to redeem himself if possible in the eyes of each of his friends.
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People who added this item 1383 Average listal rating (833 ratings) 6.3 IMDB Rating 6.6
Australia (2008)
In 1939, the aristocratic Lady Sarah Ashley travels from Great Britain to Australia to meet her husband Maitland Ashley in northern Australia. The husband's drover comes to the city of Darwin to bring Sarah to their farm; however, when they reach Faraway Downs Farm, they find that Maitland was murdered. Sarah befriends Nullah, who tells her that the administrator Neil Fletcher is stealing her cattle; has killed her husband; and is working for the cattle baron King Carney. Sarah fires Fletcher and his men and together with Drover, Nullah and a group of loyal employees, they ride together to take the cattle to supply the army and win a tender in times of war. But the ambitious Fletcher has other intentions and uses Nullah to press Sarah.
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People who added this item 1193 Average listal rating (758 ratings) 7.3 IMDB Rating 7.8
In this beautifully remake of the classic French novel by Alexandre Dumas, Edmond Dantès is the optimistic but uneducated son of a sea captain. He cherishes his friendship with the son of a count, Mondego, and is deeply in love with his fiancée, Mercedes. Young Dantès is so innocent and naive that it is positively shocking when Mondego turns on him, accusing him of treason, and having him sentenced to life in the dreary dungeon of Chateau D'If. Years of isolation and torture nearly defeat the revenge-thirsty Dantès, but with the help of invaluable lessons from the Abbé Faria, his luck slowly changes. An incredible prison break starts Dantès on his way to a new life transformed, newly rich, self-proclaimed Count of Monte Cristo. Where he slowly unfurls his excruciatingly careful plans to exact his revenge on Mondego and all those who ever wronged him.
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People who added this item 43 Average listal rating (12 ratings) 6.3 IMDB Rating 5.7
In this prequel to Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester finds himself in Jamaica looking to make his fortune. As the second son, the expectation is that his brother will inherit the family estate and so his future must lie elsewhere. He soon meets Antoinette Cosway and is offered a substantial dowry to marry her. Only after the wedding does he learn of her family history, including the madness that afflicted her mother. Their relationship in a constant downward spiral, he decides that they should return to England where he keeps her locked away in her room.
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Newland Archer is an affluent lawyer in 1870s New York, engaged to May Welland , a beautiful but conventional socialite. Newland begins to question the life he has planned for himself after the arrival of May’s cousin, the exotic and sophisticated Countess Ellen Olenska. Ellen is a passionate women who is seeking a divorce from her abusive husband, a Polish count, which has made her a social outcast and greatly displeases her family, who are afraid of scandal. As Newland grows to love and care more and more deeply for Ellen, having convinced her not to press for a divorce, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with the society to which he belongs and the idea of entering into a passionless marriage with May. The question at this point, is whether he will follow society's dictates, or those of his heart.
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People who added this item 127 Average listal rating (44 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 6.6
In nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire marries a dull country doctor . To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner and a law student, and runs up ruinous debts.
People who added this item 833 Average listal rating (483 ratings) 6.4 IMDB Rating 6.7
The film follows the story of Anna Leonowens a widow who has come to Siam with her son Louis to teach English to the royal children of Rama IV. She is a strong-willed, intelligent woman and this pleases the King, who wants to modernize his country to keep it safe from the threat of colonialism, while protecting many of the ancient traditions that give Siam its unique identity.
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People who added this item 3226 Average listal rating (2131 ratings) 7.2 IMDB Rating 7.4
Frank Coppola's Take on the story of the original Prince of Darkness.A young lawyer is assigned to a gloomy village in the mists of eastern Europe. He is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Now the Harker's friends must gather together to try to drive Dracula away.
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People who added this item 1963 Average listal rating (1128 ratings) 6.7 IMDB Rating 7.2
The story of a young chorus girl, Christine - a young talented singer who, with the right training, could become world famous. While rehearsing at the Opera Populaire, where weird and unexplainable things happen, she captures the attention and the heart of The Phantom. But he is no ghost - he is a disfigured musical genius who has hidden away for years to avoid the cruel stares of a cruel world. With the Phantoms help, Christine becomes the venue's leading lady, but tragedy awaits as the young soprano falls in love with the handsome noble Viscount Raoul De Chagny, not realizing her Angel of Music is deeply in love with her. Insane with jealousy and unable to see the object of his affection, and ultimately is obsession, in the arms of another man, The Phantom kidnaps Christine - unaware of the lengths Raoul is prepared to go to get her back.
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People who added this item 6649 Average listal rating (4718 ratings) 7.8 IMDB Rating 8.5
Gladiator (2000)
A dying Marcus Aurelius plans to name his loyal and brave General Maximus as his successor in order to restore the power of the Roman Senate. However, Marcus' neglected and power-hungry son, Commodus, has other ideas. Escaping an ordered execution, Maximus hurries back to his home in Spain, too late to save his wife and son from the same order. Taken into slavery and trained as a gladiator, Maximus lives only so he might someday take his revenge and fulfill the dying wish of his emperor. The time soon comes his troupe is called to Rome to participate in a marathon of gladiator games held at the behest of the new emperor, Commodus. Once in Rome, Maximus wastes no time in making his presence known, and is soon involved in a plot to overthrow the emperor.
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People who added this item 801 Average listal rating (526 ratings) 6.4 IMDB Rating 6.7
Hidalgo (2004)
Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire--a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian desert--was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy sheik invited an American, Frank T. Hopkins, and his horse to enter the race for the first time. During the course of his career, Hopkins was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the U.S. cavalry--and had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known. The Sheik puts his claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang, Hidalgo, against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders--some of whom are determined to prevent a foreigner from finishing the race. For Frank, the Ocean of Fire becomes not only a matter of pride and honor, but a race for his very survival as he and his horse attempt the impossible.
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People who added this item 106 Average listal rating (40 ratings) 6.3 IMDB Rating 6.9
Impromptu (1991)
Novelist George Sand falls in love with composer Frédéric Chopin. She tries to profess her love for him at a weekend hosted by a pretentious, artistically minded duchess for famous musicians, artists, and writers of the day. The gentle and sickly Chopin is wary of the outspoken Sand, but finds himself strangely drawn to her, as well.
People who added this item 9382 Average listal rating (6815 ratings) 7.1 IMDB Rating 7.9
Titanic (1997)
84 years later a 100-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukator tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell, and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Cal Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the a story sweeping romance and heart tripping adventure, from departure until the sinking of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.
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As she lay dying in a hospital bed on the eve of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, an elderly woman asks her daughter Caroline to read from a diary left to her by a man named Benjamin. Born on the same day World War I ended, Benjamin Button's mother died giving birth to him. As a newborn, he was old and wrinkled and his horrified father Thomas Button leaves him on the doorstep of an old folk's home. Benjamin fits in well for, despite his young age, he looked as old as most of the residents. Benjamin soon realizes that he is growing younger, not older however. Early on, he meets the love of his life, Daisy, a beautiful red-haired, green-eyed child who grows into a beautiful woman while Benjamin grows into a handsome young man. Their lives take many different turns and making a life together is long in coming. It also is of limited duration given their ultimately different fates.
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People who added this item 5069 Average listal rating (3439 ratings) 7.9 IMDB Rating 8.5
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences. From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them. Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London
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People who added this item 2532 Average listal rating (1601 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 7.2
Chicago (2002)
Velma Kelly is the sexy vaudeville star who murders her husband and sister after finding them in bed together. Roxie is the wannabe vaudeville star who kills her lover after finding out he was never going to make her famous. Enter Billy Flynn, the greasy lawyer whose goal is not only to have his clients acquitted, but to make them legal legends. Billy, who apparently likes Roxie's angle better than Velma's. With help from Matron Mama Morton both women vie for the spot as Illinois's most famed murderess, but there's only room for one legend...
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People who added this item 3110 Average listal rating (2046 ratings) 7.4 IMDB Rating 7.9
The disappearance of a magical jade sword spurs a breathtaking quest for the missing treasure. Li is embittered by the loss of his jade sword, and his unrequited pursuit of Yu is further complicated by the mysterious intrusion of an assassin. The identity of the assassin is gradually unveiled as another poignant tale of love begins to ravel with that of Li and Yu against the backdrop of Western China's magnificent landscape.
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In Disney's retelling of Dumas' classic swashbuckling classic novel of three of the best of the disbanded French Musketeers join a young hotheaded would-be-Musketeer, to stop the Cardinal Richelieu's evil plot to form an alliance with enemy England. The four set out on a mission to protect King and Country.
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People who added this item 1198 Average listal rating (652 ratings) 6.9 IMDB Rating 7.3
Based on Louisa May Alcott's novel story about the March sisters growing up in Civil war America. The movie takes you through their lives and loves as they grow into the women they were born to be.
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People who added this item 568 Average listal rating (335 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 7
Cleopatra (1963)
The epic story of the last Pharoh of Egypt.This movie bring light to the events that led to the amazing rise and fall of the worlds most famous woman of power.
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People who added this item 2598 Average listal rating (1516 ratings) 7.2 IMDB Rating 7.3
In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.
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People who added this item 2107 Average listal rating (1351 ratings) 5.4 IMDB Rating 5.6
Alexander (2004)
The film traces the short, but adventurous life of the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, whom conquered almost the entire known world of his era. From his conquests of Egypt, to battles with the Persians and the capture of Babylon, operations near Maracanda and in Afghanistan, and pushing all the way to India where he reigned unchallenged before his sudden death at age 32. Though Alexander made use of the well-oiled army created by his father, he pushed the limits of Macedonian and Greek power to levels King Philip could not have dreamed of.
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People who added this item 1172 Average listal rating (637 ratings) 7 IMDB Rating 7.3
Young Mary Lennox is orphaned by an earthquake in India and sent to England to live with her uncle in a cold ancestral manor in Yorkshire. Mary briefly meets him, still mourning for the wife who died ten years ago, but she is mostly left on her own. A resourceful and inquisitive girl, she soon makes two exciting discoveries. First she finds an overgrown secret garden, the favourite of her aunt and locked up since her death. Second, that she has a cousin, Colin, a sickly lad who has been told he must remain in bed out of the daylight at all times. Once Mary and another new friend, local lad Dickon, have brought the garden back to life they decide Colin must see it, a decision that will change several lives.
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People who added this item 1598 Average listal rating (882 ratings) 6.6 IMDB Rating 6.7
King Henry VIII of England and his wife Katherine of Aragon are having marital problems over the inability to sire a male heir. Henry summons the Boleyn family to his court. The Boleyn's original plan is to have Anne be Henry's mistress. After initial misgivings, Anne pursues this liaison as a means for her eventually to marry into royalty on Henry's approval. However, Henry instead sets his sites on the more innocent Mary, despite she already being married to the equally innocent William Carey. Sir Thomas and the Duke of Norfolk, Lady Elizabeth's brother, do whatever they can to secure a position of privilege in the royal court by having the Boleyn children do whatever pleases the King. Sir Thomas and the Duke's ultimate goal is for a Boleyn girl to produce a son with the King. Anne and Mary, based on their own personalities, take different paths, which sometimes places them at odds with Henry, with the people of England, with their family, and with each other.
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People who added this item 792 Average listal rating (477 ratings) 7.5 IMDB Rating 7.6
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self- worth. Sara's belief that "every girl's a princess" is tested to the limit, however, when word comes that her father was killed in action and his estate has been seized by the British government. This intern causes her to be young girl is relegated to servitude at the boarding school.
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People who added this item 2346 Average listal rating (1439 ratings) 6.6 IMDB Rating 6.5
Based on Antonia Fraser's book about the ill-fated Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France, 'Marie Antoinette' tells the story of the most misunderstood and abused woman in history, from her birth in Imperial Austria to her later life in France.From shoes to scandals, this movie outlines Marie Antoinette's nature, and her dedication to a life of fabulousness and outrageousness. We hear her utter those immortal words that caused such an outrage amongst the peasants of France, but we soon learn that it was a lie, as was much of her life.
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A night in San Francisco, during our time: A young journalist follows a man through the streets and they end up in an anonymous room. When the journalist starts to interview the man, the stranger tells him that he is a vampire, being over 200 years old. The journalist doesn't believe him, but after the man proves it's true, he tells his story: His name is Louis and in 18th century New Orleans he was 24, by this time owner of an estate and a widower already. One night, when he once again was destroying himself by drinking and other things, he was found by Lestat, a vampire, who bit him. But even after becoming a vampire, life wasn't fun for Louis until one night he met a little girl, Claudia, who would change his existence forever.
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People who added this item 2507 Average listal rating (1530 ratings) 7.6 IMDB Rating 7.8
When Briony Tallis, 13 years old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner at the fountain in front of the family estate she misinterprets what is happening thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola is raped, she tells the police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed when in fact it was a visitor to the estate.
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People who added this item 453 Average listal rating (242 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 6.8
Whenever Jack Worthing slips away to London from his Hertfordshire estate he says he is going to see his (fictitious) wayward brother Ernest. Once there he keeps his privacy by calling himself Ernest - luckily so as his beloved Gwendolen declares she could only love an Ernest. Her cousin Algy is the one person who knows Jack's secret and one day he travels down to the estate, announcing himself to Jack's attractive ward Cecily as bad brother Ernest. Cecily is much taken with him and with his name, so on Jack's return home and Gwendoen's unexpectedly arrival it becomes clear there are both too many and too few Ernests earnestly courting.
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People who added this item 165 Average listal rating (78 ratings) 7 IMDB Rating 7.1
Kate Croy's mother was born to wealth and privilege, but she threw it all away to marry Kate's father, a penniless opium addict. After her mother's death, Kate is offered an opportunity to return to the life her mother gave up. There is a condition, however: Kate must sever all of her old ties, not only to her father, but also to her lover, the muck-raking journalist Merton Densher, whom she has promised marriage. Kate reluctantly agrees to this, and in the meantime becomes friendly with "the world's richest orphan," Millie Theale, an American making the Grand Tour. Desperate to see Kate, Merton crashes a party that she and Millie are attending, and Millie is attracted to him. When Kate learns that Millie is dying, she comes up with a plan to have her cake and eat it too...but all does not go as planned.
People who added this item 293 Average listal rating (160 ratings) 6.7 IMDB Rating 6.8
Jane Eyre (1996)
Jane Eyre, orphaned, is left to live under the charity of her Aunt Reed. After living ten years of mistreatment and segregation in her Aunt's home, she is then sent to Lowood- a boarding school for young girls. Jane grows up both physically and mentally at Lowood and becomes a teacher at age eighteen. She then advertises for the position of a governess and is called upon by Mrs Fairfax at Thornfield. At Thornfield, Jane falls in love with the master, Mr Rochester, and he with her. However, he yields a terrible and dark secret that threatens to tear them apart for good.
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People who added this item 258 Average listal rating (123 ratings) 6 IMDB Rating 6.1
During France's belle époque before World War I, elegant cars, mansions, and servants defined the lives of les grandes horizontals, the courtesans of kings and millionaires. One of the most successful, Lea de Lonval, is approaching a certain age when an older associate, Charlotte Peloux, asks Lea to take on her 19 year old son, whom Lea has called Chéri since he was a child. They become lovers and, to their surprise, the relationship lasts six years. When it ends abruptly with a marriage his mother arranges to the daughter of another courtesan, Lea finds herself miserable. Has she fallen in love? If so, do she -- and Chéri - have a chance?
People who added this item 263 Average listal rating (130 ratings) 6.9 IMDB Rating 7
Valmont (1989)
Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love.
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People who added this item 337 Average listal rating (157 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 6.8
A sweeping, epic production of Emily Bronte's classic tale of star-crossed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, whose passionate love and tragic separation plays out against the verdant Yorkshire moors.This version presents the complete novel and continues the fateful consequences of the doomed love affair as it resonates throughout two generations of the Earnshaw and Linton families.
People who added this item 1741 Average listal rating (981 ratings) 6.2 IMDB Rating 6.5
Katherine Ann Watson has accepted a position teaching art history at the prestigious Wellesley College. Watson is a very modern woman, particularly for the 1950s, and has a passion not only for art but for her students. For the most part, the students all seem to be biding their time, waiting to find the right man to marry. The students are all very bright and Watson feels they are not reaching their potential. Altough a strong bond is formed between teacher and student, Watson's views are incompatible with the dominant culture of the college.
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People who added this item 149 Average listal rating (54 ratings) 7.3 IMDB Rating 7.2
Brother and sister Viola and Sebastian, who are not only very close but look a great deal alike, both survive a shipwreck, and both think the other dead. When she lands in a foreign country, Viola dresses as her brother and adopts the name Cesario, becoming a trusted friend and confidante to the Count Orsino. Orsino is madly in love with the lady Olivia, who is in mourning due to her brother's recent death, which she uses as an excuse to avoid seeing the count, whom she does not love. He sends Cesario to do his wooing, and Olivia falls in love with the disguised maiden. Things get more complicated in this bittersweet Shakespeare comedy when a moronic nobleman, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and a self-important servant, Malvolio, get caught up in the schemes of Olivia's cousin, the obese, alcoholic Sir Toby, who leads each to believe Olivia loves him. As well, Sebastian surfaces in the area, and of course there is Feste, the wise fool, around to keep everything in perspective and to marvel, like we the audience, at the amazing things happening all around.
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People who added this item 860 Average listal rating (501 ratings) 7.2 IMDB Rating 7.2
Quills (2000)
The infamous writer, The Marquis de Sade of 18th Century France, is imprisoned for unmentionable activities at Charanton Insane Asylumn. He manages to befriend the young Abbe de Coulmier, who run's the asylumn, along with a beautiful laundress named Madeline. Things go terribly wrong when the Abbe finds out that the Marquis' books are being secretly published. Emperor Napolean contemplates sending Dr. Royer-Collard to oversee the asylumn, a man famed for his torturous punishments. It could mean the end of Charanton and possibly the Marquis himself.
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People who added this item 208 Average listal rating (117 ratings) 7 IMDB Rating 7.1
Stage Beauty (2004)
Set in the theatres 1660's of London, this film is about the rules of gender roles in theatre production, and means to change them for everyone's benefit. Ned Kynaston is the bisexual cross-dressing actor who has been playing female parts in plays for years, particularly Desdemona in Othello. One day however, the rules of only men playing women could change when aspiring actress Maria auditions as Kynaston's praised role, Desdemona, and soon enough, King Charles II decides to make the law that all female roles should be played only by women. Maria becomes a star, while Ned finds himself out of work.
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People who added this item 2572 Average listal rating (1596 ratings) 6.6 IMDB Rating 7.1
Romantic comedy set in London in the late 16th century: Young playwright William Shakespeare struggles with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter". A great fan of Shakespeare's plays is young, wealthy Viola who is about to be married to the cold-hearted Lord Wessex, but constantly dreams of becoming an actress. Women were not allowed to act on stage at that time, but dressed up as a boy, Viola successfully auditions for the part of Romeo. Soon she and William are caught in a forbidden romance that provides rich inspiration for his play.
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People who added this item 233 Average listal rating (121 ratings) 6.4 IMDB Rating 6.6
A sweeping romantic drama set in 1930's England, Paris, and Spain. Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated - seemingly forever.
People who added this item 224 Average listal rating (104 ratings) 7.5 IMDB Rating 7.6
Persuasion (1995)
Eight years earlier, Anne Elliot, the daughter of a financially troubled aristocratic family, was persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a young seaman, who, though promising, had poor family connections. When her father rents out the family estate to Admiral Croft, Anne is thrown into company with Frederick, because his sister is Mrs. Croft. Frederick is now a rich and successful Captain, and a highly eligible bachelor. Whom will he marry? One of Anne's sister's husband's sisters? Or will he and Anne rekindle the old flame?
People who added this item 895 Average listal rating (525 ratings) 7.2 IMDB Rating 7.5
The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.
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Isabel Archer, an American heiress and free thinker travels to Europe to find herself. She tactfully rebuffs the advances of Caspar Goodwood, another American who has followed her to England. Her cousin, Ralph Touchett, wise but sickly becomes a soulmate of sorts for her. She makes an unfortunate alliance with the creepy Madame Merle who leads her to make an even more unfortunate alliance with Gilbert Osmond, a smooth but cold collector of Objets' de art who seduces her with an intense but unattainable sexuality. Isabel marries Osmond only to realize she's just another piece of art for his collection and that Madame Merle and Osmond are lovers who had hatched a diabolical scheme to take Isabel's fortune.
People who added this item 143 Average listal rating (60 ratings) 6.8 IMDB Rating 6.6
Restoration (1995)
An aspiring young physician, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of someone close to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry his King's mistress in order to divert the queens suspicions. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunions with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a physician.
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People who added this item 142 Average listal rating (58 ratings) 6.7 IMDB Rating 6.9
Onegin (1999)
In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat - a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him. Based upon the epic Russian poem.
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People who added this item 218 Average listal rating (110 ratings) 6.3 IMDB Rating 7.2
Young Nicholas and his family enjoy a comfortable life, until Nicholas' father dies and the family is left penniless. Nicholas, his sister and mother venture to London to seek help from their Uncle Ralph, but Ralph's only intentions are to separate the family and exploit them. Nicholas is sent to a school run by the cruel, abusive and horridly entertaining Wackford Squeers. Eventually, Nicholas runs away with schoolmate Smike, and the two set off to reunite the Nickleby family.
Young lovers Hero and Claudio are to be married in one week. To pass the time, they conspire with Don Pedro to set a "lover's trap" for Benedick, an arrogant confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favorite sparring partner. Meanwhile, the evil Don Jon conspires to break up the wedding by accusing Hero of infidelity. In the end, though, it all turns out to be "much ado about nothing."
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This list is for those who,like myself,love to revel in the distant and rarefied past.There are few more enjoyable pastimes than being transported to a distant time and surrounded by breathtaking castle views and lavishly costumed characters. So may I present a collection of the best and brightest Hollywood has to offer!

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