European Period Dramas
by amani-preston | created - 28 Dec 2013 | updated - 19 Jul 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Merchant of Venice (2004)
R | 131 min | Drama, Romance
In 16th century Venice, when a merchant must default on a large loan from an abused Jewish moneylender for a friend with romantic ambitions, the bitterly vengeful creditor demands a gruesome payment instead.
Director: Michael Radford | Stars: Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons
Votes: 38,263 | Gross: $3.77M
2. Gladiator (2000)
R | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed
Votes: 1,620,975 | Gross: $187.71M
3. Tristan + Isolde (2006)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Drama, Romance
An affair between the second in line to Britain's throne and the princess of the feuding Irish spells doom for the young lovers.
Director: Kevin Reynolds | Stars: James Franco, Sophia Myles, Rufus Sewell, David O'Hara
Votes: 54,297 | Gross: $14.73M
4. Becket (1964)
PG-13 | 148 min | Biography, Drama, History
King Henry II of England comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant Thomas Becket, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the King's.
Director: Peter Glenville | Stars: Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud, Gino Cervi
Votes: 15,852
5. 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: 34,229 | Gross: $22.28M
6. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
Votes: 37,170 | Gross: $28.35M
7. To Kill a King (2003)
Not Rated | 102 min | Biography, Drama, History
A recounting of the relationship between General Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, as they try to cope with the consequences of deposing King Charles I.
Director: Mike Barker | Stars: Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Olivia Williams, James Bolam
Votes: 3,413
8. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,957 | Gross: $50.93M
9. Impromptu (1991)
PG-13 | 107 min | Biography, Comedy, Music
In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.
Director: James Lapine | Stars: Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters
Votes: 5,517 | Gross: $4.08M
10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
M/PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An eccentric Scottish schoolteacher's extravagantly romantic ideas about life--and love--overly impress her young pupils and bring her into conflict with her school's conservative headmistress.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin
Votes: 9,863
11. The Secret Garden (1993)
G | 101 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A young, recently-orphaned girl is sent to England after living in India all of her life. Once there, she begins to explore her new, seemingly-isolated surroundings, and its secrets.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Kate Maberly, Maggie Smith, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott
Votes: 44,489 | Gross: $31.18M
12. The Wings of the Dove (1997)
R | 102 min | Drama, Romance
An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she sees a chance to have both the privileged life she cannot give up and the lover she cannot live without.
Director: Iain Softley | Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alex Jennings, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 13,060 | Gross: $13.72M
13. Valmont (1989)
R | 137 min | Drama, Romance
France before 1789: When a widow hears that her lover is to marry her cousin's daughter, she asks the playboy Valmont to take the girl's virginity. But first she bets him, with her body as prize, to seduce a virtuous, young, married woman.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 14,302 | Gross: $1.13M
14. Wuthering Heights (1992)
PG | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance
A man becomes obsessed with vengeance when his soul mate marries another man.
Director: Peter Kosminsky | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Janet McTeer, Sophie Ward
Votes: 14,350
15. Twelfth Night (1996)
PG | 134 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.
Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Imogen Stubbs, Steven Mackintosh
Votes: 6,404 | Gross: $0.59M
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: 10,743 | Gross: $0.78M
17. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, History
The world's greatest ever playwright, William Shakespeare, is young, out of ideas and short of cash, but meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 234,393 | Gross: $100.32M
18. The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
PG-13 | 144 min | Drama, Romance
An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin Donovan
Votes: 12,677 | Gross: $3.69M
19. Restoration (1995)
R | 117 min | Biography, Drama, History
The exiled royal doctor to King Charles II devotes himself to helping Londoners suffering from the plague, and in the process falls in love with an equally poor woman.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill, David Thewlis, Polly Walker
Votes: 9,924 | Gross: $4.10M
20. Onegin (1999)
R | 106 min | Drama, Romance
Russia, 1820s: Onegin inherits his uncle's country estate and moves there from St. Petersburg. He befriends his neighbor, Lensky, and meets Tatyana through him. She falls in love with Onegin but he just wants friendship.
Director: Martha Fiennes | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler, Toby Stephens, Lena Headey
Votes: 8,313 | Gross: $0.21M
21. The Remains of the Day (1993)
PG | 134 min | Drama, Romance
A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, John Haycraft, Christopher Reeve
Votes: 84,483 | Gross: $22.95M
22. Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
PG | 132 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-heartedly grasping uncle.
Director: Douglas McGrath | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Jamie Bell, Christopher Plummer, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 13,673 | Gross: $1.59M
23. Brideshead Revisited (2008)
PG-13 | 133 min | Drama, Romance
A poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in England prior to World War II.
Director: Julian Jarrold | Stars: Matthew Goode, Patrick Malahide, Hayley Atwell, Thomas Morrison
Votes: 13,670 | Gross: $6.41M
24. The Affair of the Necklace (2001)
R | 118 min | Drama, History, Romance
In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.
Director: Charles Shyer | Stars: Hilary Swank, Simon Baker, Jonathan Pryce, Adrien Brody
Votes: 5,595 | Gross: $0.43M
25. A Room with a View (1985)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands
Votes: 47,885 | Gross: $20.97M
26. Bright Star (2009)
PG | 119 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox
Votes: 28,709 | Gross: $4.44M
27. Amazing Grace (2006)
PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British transatlantic slave trade.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai
Votes: 25,697 | Gross: $21.21M
28. 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: 73,073 | Gross: $0.62M
29. Dangerous Beauty (1998)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A Venetian courtesan becomes a hero to her city, but later becomes the target of an inquisition by the Church for witchcraft.
Director: Marshall Herskovitz | Stars: Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt, Fred Ward
Votes: 19,641 | Gross: $4.53M
30. A Knight's Tale (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
After his master dies, a peasant squire, fueled by his desire for food and glory, creates a new identity for himself as a knight.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon
Votes: 201,814 | Gross: $56.57M
31. Firelight (1997)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A governess agrees to bear a child to help her father.
Director: William Nicholson | Stars: Sophie Marceau, Stephen Dillane, Dominique Belcourt, Kevin Anderson
Votes: 4,811 | Gross: $0.78M
32. Hamlet (1996)
PG-13 | 242 min | Drama
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet
Votes: 40,061 | Gross: $4.41M
33. Illuminata (1998)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A turn-of-the-20th-century theatre repertory company rejects the latest project of their beloved playwright Tuccio, kicking off a saga of intrigue surrounding the influential critic Bevalaqua and star Celimene.
Director: John Turturro | Stars: Leo Bassi, Henri Béhar, Maurizio Benazzo, Fernando Bolles
Votes: 1,732 | Gross: $0.84M
34. The Woodlanders (1997)
PG | 98 min | Drama, Romance
The story is set in late 19th century rural corner of South England. The daughter of timber merchant Melbury, Grace, returns to the town after finishing school. Her father now believes she ... See full summary »
Director: Phil Agland | Stars: Emily Woof, Rufus Sewell, Cal MacAninch, Tony Haygarth
Votes: 747
35. Luther (2003)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
During the early sixteenth century, idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the Catholic Church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.
Director: Eric Till | Stars: Joseph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Peter Ustinov, Alfred Molina
Votes: 16,005 | Gross: $5.79M
36. The Winslow Boy (1999)
G | 104 min | Drama, Romance
Following the theft of a postal order, a 14-year-old cadet is expelled from Naval College. To save the honour of the boy and his family, the pre-eminent barrister of the day is engaged to take on the might of the Admiralty.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Rebecca Pidgeon, Jeremy Northam, Nigel Hawthorne, Matthew Pidgeon
Votes: 9,452 | Gross: $3.96M
37. The Golden Bowl (2000)
R | 130 min | Drama, Romance
A man marries an heiress for her money even though he is actually in love with her friend.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Uma Thurman, Jeremy Northam, Kate Beckinsale, James Fox
Votes: 4,605 | Gross: $3.04M
38. Dean Spanley (2008)
PG | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
Set in Edwardian England where upper lips are always stiff and men from the Colonies are not entirely to be trusted, Fisk Senior has little time or affection for his son, but when the pair visit an eccentric Indian, they start a strange journey that eventually allows the old man to find his heart.
Director: Toa Fraser | Stars: Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Peter O'Toole
Votes: 3,824
39. Orlando (1992)
PG-13 | 94 min | Biography, Drama, Fantasy
After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Quentin Crisp, Jimmy Somerville
Votes: 18,726 | Gross: $5.29M
40. Lady Jane (1986)
PG-13 | 136 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for only nine days.
Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Cary Elwes, John Wood, Michael Hordern
Votes: 7,085 | Gross: $0.28M
41. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice, to wed as well.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale
Votes: 52,019 | Gross: $22.55M
42. Young Bess (1953)
Approved | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The early life of Elizabeth I, from her childhood until her accession to the throne of England in 1558.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Charles Laughton
Votes: 1,818
43. The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary (2008)
104 min | Drama, History
She was loved, she was a princess, heir to the throne - but the childhood fairytale turned to lifelong nightmare for Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's first child. When Henry divorced her mother and... See full summary »
Director: Chris Barnard | Stars: Miranda French, Simon Kirk, Jorge Balça, Jason Sharp
Votes: 58
44. Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
PG | 145 min | Biography, Drama, History
King Henry VIII of England discards one wife, Catharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn.
Director: Charles Jarrott | Stars: Richard Burton, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 8,121 | Gross: $2.07M
45. The Conclave (2006)
100 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1458, five years after the fall of Constantinople to the Turk, eighteen cardinals met in Rome to elect a new pope. A 27-year-old Spanish cardinal, Rodrigo Borgia, learns to play a very dangerous game; how to survive his first conclave.
Director: Christoph Schrewe | Stars: Manu Fullola, Brian Blessed, James Faulkner, Rolf Kanies
Votes: 617
46. The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Approved | 138 min | Biography, Drama, History
The biographical story of Michelangelo's troubles while painting the Sistine Chapel at the urging of Pope Julius II.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews
Votes: 8,057
47. The Advocate (1993)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In medieval France, young lawyer Richard Courtois leaves Paris for the simpler life in the country. However, he is soon drawn into amorous and political intrigues. At the same time, he is ... See full summary »
Director: Leslie Megahey | Stars: Colin Firth, Amina Annabi, Jim Carter, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 2,196 | Gross: $0.67M
48. God's Outlaw (1986)
Not Rated | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatized biography of William Tyndale, the 16th Century reformer determined to translate the Bible into English, which illegal act set him at odds with the Catholic Church, Sir Thomas More and King Henry VIII.
Director: Tony Tew | Stars: Roger Rees, Bernard Archard, Keith Barron, Kenneth Gilbert
Votes: 245
49. As You Like It (2006)
PG | 127 min | Drama, Comedy, Romance
A daughter of the powerful Duke must show her courage and inventiveness to be with the man she loves.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Takuya Shimada, Brian Blessed, Richard Clifford, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 3,730
50. Anonymous (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Thriller
The theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, who penned Shakespeare's plays. Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I and the Essex rebellion against her.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis, Sebastian Armesto
Votes: 42,135 | Gross: $4.46M
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