The 5 Best Period Drama Films to Escape to the Country
By day, I am a Producer in the film and television industry, and I feel like I am doing a disservice by not talking about some of the best period drama films out there (in my humble opinion). I know what you seek - a star-studded cast, beautiful costumes, glorious backdrops of country estates and rolling hills, stiff-upper lip exchanges of conversation. The gentle, proper English manners of bygone eras that you can escape to. So in no particular order, here are 5 films that I believe are some of the best period dramas to be made. I hope you enjoy them too and please let me know what you think in the comments below!
Entertainment Film Distributors /USA Films
Gosford Park
This film is a staple in my period drama diet. I always return to it, because it’s an easy watch and a delight to watch so many British legends on screen together.
The story explores the upstairs-downstairs lives of wealthy Brits (plus an American) and their servants, over the course of a shooting weekend at Gosford Park. A murder occurs after the dinner and the story unfolds the police investigation that takes place, through the perspectives of both servants and guests.
The humour is brilliantly expressed, it’s dark and satirical, and really playing up the ‘stiff upper lip’ English manners. I have started my list with this film because it’s a large ensemble cast, which is often reserved for television dramas (like Downton Abbey). In film, you have a shorter window of time to introduce characters and make the audience care about what they’re saying/doing. That’s a challenge and director Robert Altman did a marvellous job. Throughout the film, multiple conversations are being held simultaneously and overlap, and this makes you (the audience) feel like one of the guests, moving through the drawing room and listening in, like you would at a party. It’s a very clever technique and helps to bring a sense of realism to the film. Special shout out to Kirsten Scott Thomas and her gowns, oh my word, she looked like a goddess.
A great one to watch on Sundays.
Sony Pictures Releasing
Sense and Sensibility
This is my favourite Jane Austen film adaptation. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch Pride & Prejudice on repeat (both the 2005 film version and 1995 TV series), but this film is simply perfect! Right away you are transported to idyllic English country life. The ending still makes me cry with joy!
Based on the novel, the story follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, members of a wealthy family, who suddenly face impoverishment. They are forced to seek marriages as a way of security.
It took Emma Thompson (who also stars as Elinor Dashwood) five years to write and revise the screenplay. Directed by Ang Lee, it’s a beautifully shot film and you feel a sense of unexplainable grandeur in the framing of each composed shot. That aside, you route and admire each sister, both of whom are very different in characteristics and approaches to life. When I was younger I felt akin to Marianne and found Elinor stuffy and repressed. As I have matured, I have come around and empathised with Elinor’s cautious nature. Throw in Alan Rickman and dreamy 90s Hugh Grant and you’ll want for nothing in this quintessential English drama (produced by Americans and directed by an Asian filmmaker)!
Curzon Film Distributors
A Room With a View
There was a time that everyone knew of Merchant-Ivory films and I think it’s a darn shame that not so many people know of them now. The power director-producer duo James Ivory and Ismail Merchant were life and business partners. Together, they made 44 films with the idea of focusing on Englishness set in India. Have a look through their filmography and you’ll see they've worked with some of the most iconic British actors, including Helena Bonham Carter, who stars in this classic.
A romantic tale based on E. M. Forster’s novel, we follow protagonist Lucy Honeychurch as she battles the internal struggle of repressed, conservative Edwardian Era culture and her love for passionate, care-free spirit, George Emerson. The story is set in England and Italy and was a commercial box-office smash.
I recommend this film, not just because of the lavish locations, costumes and stellar cast (all incredible), but because we rarely explore Edwardian England in the media. Merchant-Ivory were niche in selecting this particular time period and they were true masters of it. Have a think, since these two, how many Edwarrdian films have come out? Start with A Room With a View and follow-up with Howard’s End, a great double-bill to kick off your soon-to-be love affair with Merchant-Ivory films.
Warner Bros. / Columbia Pictures
Barry Lyndon
Sarabande, composed by George Handel, was on constant repeat after I watched Barry Lyndon for the first time. The music score in this film is absolutely sensational. Directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, I think this film tends to be overshadowed by his other works. Perhaps because it’s a period drama and not a thriller/horror theme (and period dramas tend to be targeted to female audiences) that it's often not held up in higher regard. But I think arguably, this was his best work. The cinematography is groundbreaking. Every shot was lit by candlelight to replicate the look of Hogarth paintings (Kubrick’s inspiration). Film nerds will excitedly express that he used NASA lenses, which had wider apertures to capture the shots (hi, it’s me, a film nerd).
Based on the novel written by William Thackeray, the story follows Barry Lyndon - a young man born into Irish gentry but a ruined family financially. He sets out and is determined to join the English aristocracy. He is unscrupulous, bad with money and selfish. A wonderfully flawed protagonist! I will warn you, the pacing is slow for modern times, but stay with it. Every shot is a masterpiece. You are watching classical art in movement, the way cinema is intended to be viewed.
Titanus / Pathé / 20th Century Fox
The Leopard
Where to even begin with this glorious masterclass of cinematic filmmaking? These days, I am reluctant to use words like ‘cinematic’ in my film conversations, because the word is thrown around so much on social media. If you are an aspiring filmmaker then I can promise you, Instagram and Tik Tok are not where you learn the craft. Films like The Leopard are where you study the art of film. And it is an artform!
I know I gave this list no ranking but…I have saved the best for last. The sweeping landscape shots of Italy will make you want to abandon home and rush off to Tuscany to work on a vineyard or something. The casting - Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale will make you blush with their onscreen romance. You couldn’t have put more beautiful people together in scenes (this film is at the height of their fame, when European stars were just as big as the Hollywood ones).
The film follows Don Fabrizio Corbera and his family of Sicilian nobility, as they navigate through the sociopolitical turmoil, occurring in Italy during the mid-19th century. Don Corbera is of the older generation and so we see him struggle with the changes in the country, in comparison to his young nephew Tancredi, and his goddaughter, Angelica.
You’ll admire the class and dignified gentry. Expect opulence and grandeur.
Who else would end the last 45 minutes of their film in one ballroom sequence? And you are enraptured the whole time! I won’t pretend this film is an easy-watch compared to the other films on my list. It’s 2.5-3 hours long depending on which version you watch. I could go on for hours as to why this film is worthy of viewing. But instead, I’d simply recommend watching it during a late rainy afternoon, with an espresso perhaps.
