Middle Ages in film
Encyclopedia
Medieval films imagine and portray the Middle Ages
through the visual, audio and thematic forms of cinema
.
, architecture
, poetry
, music
and novel
. In the 20th century, film has defined Medieval history perhaps more so than any other medium. While the conclusions of academic research and findings of archeology have advanced knowledge of the Middle Ages, nothing has had more widespread influence on more people than the images created by film. Just as most people's perceptions of the American Wild West were drawn from cinema
, versus source material or academic research, so too most peoples perceptions of the Middle Ages were influenced by the powerful narratives and images of film.
If film was the most influential medium, Hollywood was the most influential image maker. Hollywood films reached a global audience through big budget productions, and equally big distribution and advertising channels. Hollywood adapted works of the Romanticism
movement to the screen, seamlessly forging a bridge between Romanticized historical novel
s, operas, paintings, and music of the 19th century onto film in the 20th. The ideals of the Romantics were fully realized on the screen in such influential works as Ivanhoe
(1952) and El Cid
(1961) which belong to the same late Romantic culture in their music, imagery and themes.
Strong cinematic images of the Middle Ages can be found in European films. Influential European films included Fritz Lang
's two-film series Die Nibelungen: Siegfrieds Tod and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (1924), Sergei Eisenstein
's Alexander Nevsky
(1938) and Ingmar Bergman
's The Seventh Seal
(1957), while in France
there were many versions of the story of Joan of Arc
.
The first Medieval film was also one of the earliest films ever made, Jeanne d'Arc
released in 1899. The first Robin Hood film dates to 1907 and was called Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
and historiophoty of medieval film is one of a new, evolving and dynamic field of study. The two terms were discussed in depth by noted historiographer Hayden White in an issue of The American Historical Review devoted to the subject, in which he elaborates a theory that one of the main sources of friction between History and Film is the problem of translating from a written discourse (hence the -graphy) to a visual one (-photy); he proposes that the problem can be resolved by the recognition that written History itself is a subjective and selective process. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by White's earlier writing, the French historian Marc Ferro
had already devoted his seminal work Cinéma et Histoire to precisely this question, which he theorised in Chapter 16 of this work, in which he asks "Can a filmic writing of History exist?"
Although in general terms the relationship between film and history has been a subject of interest since as long as films have been made, it was only in the last decade of the 20th century that medievalists paid attention to film as a serious means of learning about the Middle Ages. As Arthur Lindley said in 1998 "One could note the absence of books by medievalists as well as books of any kind devoted to medieval film," however he prophetically observed "The situation may be beginning to change". This change took place in part by the recognition of the complex relationship between historiography
and cinematic history, since the publication of works such as Norman Cantor
's Inventing the Middle Ages in 1991 demonstrated the extent of the influence of historiography on Medieval History. Harnessing the work of the earlier New Historicism, this emergent field of historiography began to challenge the hegemony
of Medieval historians over the history which they narrate, and opens the door for new modes of thinking by the proposition that "we cannot interpret medieval culture, or any historical culture, except through the prism of the dominat concepts of our own thought worlds."
Until the publication of Kevin J. Harty's book The Reel Middle Ages (1999) there had been no comprehensive survey of medieval films, and John Aberth's book A Knight at the Movies (2003) can probably be called the first book in English dedicated solely to the subject of history and medieval history on film. One year later, in 2004, the eminent French historian François Amy de la Bretèque published his L'Imaginaire médiéval dans le cinéma occidental, in which he proposes a number of useful theories to finally break out of the circle of historiography vs historiophoty. One of the most pervasive of these, and one picked up in Robert Rosenstone's History on Film/Film on History (2006) is that both History and Film are ways of narrating the past, both equally susceptible in theory (though not in practice) to perversion. As Rosenstone observes, "we always violate the past, even as we attempt to preserve its memory in whatever medium we use... Yet this violation is inevitable, part of the price of our attempts at understanding the vanished world of our forebears."
These ideas were picked up by later authors and incorporated into criticism of medieval films, most notably by Nickolas Haydock and Andrew B.R. Elliott, in order to establish a starting position which accepts the inevitable falsification of the period in film, and instead focuses on what these changes reveal about modern attitudes to the period. Haydock achieves this by arguing for a "medieval imaginary", a Lacanian idea which suggests that there exists a collected body of ideas about the Middle Ages to which filmmakers (and perhaps historians themselves) refer. Elliott, on the other hand, suggests that modern images of the period are based on semiotics, in which both images and paradigms are signifiers of an earlier medieval referent. Both of these ideas connect back to the theory of historiophoty, in that they rely on a kind of history which is written in images, and not in words.
Historiophoty today, therefore, is an ongoing process which recognises the inherent problems in bringing history in general- and medieval history in particular, given its vulnerability to be hijacked by the fantasy genre- to life on the screen. One of the major breakthroughs has been in finally overcoming the reluctance to accept film as history by the recognition that it is not a 'type' of history, but rather that cinema makes use of its own cinematic techniques in order to narrate its history, proposing not a challenge to historical records but simply an alternative way of narrating them.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
through the visual, audio and thematic forms of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
.
Background
The 20th century is not the first to create images of life during medieval times. The Middle Ages ended over five centuries ago and each century has imagined, portrayed and depicted the Middle Ages through paintingPainting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. In the 20th century, film has defined Medieval history perhaps more so than any other medium. While the conclusions of academic research and findings of archeology have advanced knowledge of the Middle Ages, nothing has had more widespread influence on more people than the images created by film. Just as most people's perceptions of the American Wild West were drawn from cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, versus source material or academic research, so too most peoples perceptions of the Middle Ages were influenced by the powerful narratives and images of film.
If film was the most influential medium, Hollywood was the most influential image maker. Hollywood films reached a global audience through big budget productions, and equally big distribution and advertising channels. Hollywood adapted works of the Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
movement to the screen, seamlessly forging a bridge between Romanticized historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s, operas, paintings, and music of the 19th century onto film in the 20th. The ideals of the Romantics were fully realized on the screen in such influential works as Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (1952 film)
Ivanhoe is a 1952 historical film made by MGM. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The cast featured Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Finlay Currie and Felix Aylmer...
(1952) and El Cid
El Cid (film)
El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in...
(1961) which belong to the same late Romantic culture in their music, imagery and themes.
Strong cinematic images of the Middle Ages can be found in European films. Influential European films included Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's two-film series Die Nibelungen: Siegfrieds Tod and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (1924), Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
's Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (film)
Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in association with Dmitri Vasilyev and a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko, who were assigned to ensure Eisenstein did not stray into "formalism" and to facilitate shooting on a reasonable timetable...
(1938) and Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...
(1957), while in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
there were many versions of the story of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (disambiguation)
Joan of Arc is a French historical figure.Joan of Arc may also refer to:-Film and television:* Joan of Arc , a 1999 made-for-TV film* Joan of Arc...
.
The first Medieval film was also one of the earliest films ever made, Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne d'Arc (1899 film)
Jeanne d'Arc is a short silent film about Joan of Arc. The medieval film, released in 1900, was written and directed by Georges Méliès....
released in 1899. The first Robin Hood film dates to 1907 and was called Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Historiography and Historiophoty
The historiographyHistoriography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
and historiophoty of medieval film is one of a new, evolving and dynamic field of study. The two terms were discussed in depth by noted historiographer Hayden White in an issue of The American Historical Review devoted to the subject, in which he elaborates a theory that one of the main sources of friction between History and Film is the problem of translating from a written discourse (hence the -graphy) to a visual one (-photy); he proposes that the problem can be resolved by the recognition that written History itself is a subjective and selective process. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by White's earlier writing, the French historian Marc Ferro
Marc Ferro
Marc Ferro is a French historian. He has worked on early twentieth-century European history, specialising in the history of Russia and the USSR, as well as the history of cinema....
had already devoted his seminal work Cinéma et Histoire to precisely this question, which he theorised in Chapter 16 of this work, in which he asks "Can a filmic writing of History exist?"
Although in general terms the relationship between film and history has been a subject of interest since as long as films have been made, it was only in the last decade of the 20th century that medievalists paid attention to film as a serious means of learning about the Middle Ages. As Arthur Lindley said in 1998 "One could note the absence of books by medievalists as well as books of any kind devoted to medieval film," however he prophetically observed "The situation may be beginning to change". This change took place in part by the recognition of the complex relationship between historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
and cinematic history, since the publication of works such as Norman Cantor
Norman Cantor
Norman Frank Cantor was a historian who specialized in the medieval period. Known for his accessible writing and engaging narrative style, Cantor's books were among the most widely-read treatments of medieval history in English...
's Inventing the Middle Ages in 1991 demonstrated the extent of the influence of historiography on Medieval History. Harnessing the work of the earlier New Historicism, this emergent field of historiography began to challenge the hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
of Medieval historians over the history which they narrate, and opens the door for new modes of thinking by the proposition that "we cannot interpret medieval culture, or any historical culture, except through the prism of the dominat concepts of our own thought worlds."
Until the publication of Kevin J. Harty's book The Reel Middle Ages (1999) there had been no comprehensive survey of medieval films, and John Aberth's book A Knight at the Movies (2003) can probably be called the first book in English dedicated solely to the subject of history and medieval history on film. One year later, in 2004, the eminent French historian François Amy de la Bretèque published his L'Imaginaire médiéval dans le cinéma occidental, in which he proposes a number of useful theories to finally break out of the circle of historiography vs historiophoty. One of the most pervasive of these, and one picked up in Robert Rosenstone's History on Film/Film on History (2006) is that both History and Film are ways of narrating the past, both equally susceptible in theory (though not in practice) to perversion. As Rosenstone observes, "we always violate the past, even as we attempt to preserve its memory in whatever medium we use... Yet this violation is inevitable, part of the price of our attempts at understanding the vanished world of our forebears."
These ideas were picked up by later authors and incorporated into criticism of medieval films, most notably by Nickolas Haydock and Andrew B.R. Elliott, in order to establish a starting position which accepts the inevitable falsification of the period in film, and instead focuses on what these changes reveal about modern attitudes to the period. Haydock achieves this by arguing for a "medieval imaginary", a Lacanian idea which suggests that there exists a collected body of ideas about the Middle Ages to which filmmakers (and perhaps historians themselves) refer. Elliott, on the other hand, suggests that modern images of the period are based on semiotics, in which both images and paradigms are signifiers of an earlier medieval referent. Both of these ideas connect back to the theory of historiophoty, in that they rely on a kind of history which is written in images, and not in words.
Historiophoty today, therefore, is an ongoing process which recognises the inherent problems in bringing history in general- and medieval history in particular, given its vulnerability to be hijacked by the fantasy genre- to life on the screen. One of the major breakthroughs has been in finally overcoming the reluctance to accept film as history by the recognition that it is not a 'type' of history, but rather that cinema makes use of its own cinematic techniques in order to narrate its history, proposing not a challenge to historical records but simply an alternative way of narrating them.
Select films
At over 900 films listed by Harty in 1999, it is beyond the scope of this article to create a complete list. Listed here are some of the best and most significant films in both quality and historical accuracy as determined by a consensus poll of medieval students and teachers.| Date | Era | Title | IMDB | Country | Reviews | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | 1431 | The Passion of Joan of Arc The Passion of Joan of Arc The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film produced in France in 1928. It is based on the record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019254/ | France | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Passion+of+Joan+of+Arc | Joan of Arc. The film was so powerful that it was initially banned in Britain. |
| 1938 | 12th c. | The Adventures of Robin Hood The Adventures of Robin Hood (film) The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/ | USA | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Adventures+of+Robin+Hood+ | Prince John John of England John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death... and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of... masses in King Richard Richard I of England Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period... 's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army. |
| 1938 | 13th c. | Alexander Nevsky Alexander Nevsky (film) Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in association with Dmitri Vasilyev and a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko, who were assigned to ensure Eisenstein did not stray into "formalism" and to facilitate shooting on a reasonable timetable... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029850/ | USSR | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=Alexander+Nevsky | Russians defend against invading German Teutonic Knights Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order... during the Northern Crusades Northern Crusades The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea... of the 13th century. |
| 1957 | 13th / 14th c. | The Seventh Seal The Seventh Seal The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/ | Sweden | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Seventh+Seal | About a knight returning from a crusade who plays a chess game with Death during the Black Plague. |
| 1960 | 13th c. | The Virgin Spring The Virgin Spring The Virgin Spring is a 1960 Swedish drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in medieval Sweden, it is a revenge tale about a father's merciless response to the rape and murder of his young daughter. The story was adapted by screenwriter Ulla Isaksson from a 13th century Swedish ballad, "Töres... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053976/ | Sweden | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Virgin+Spring | Story of Christian medieval Swedish family whose daughter is raped by vagabonds. Directed by Ingmar Bergman Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and... . |
| 1961 | 11th c. | El Cid El Cid (film) El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054847/ | USA | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^El+Cid+(1961) | Epic film of the legendary Spanish hero. |
| 1964 | 12th c. | Becket | http://www.imdb.com/Title?0057877 | UK | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=becket | Based on Jean Anouilh Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's... 's play about Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group... Thomas à Becket and King Henry II of England Henry II of England Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the... . |
| 1965 | 11th c. | The War Lord The War Lord The War Lord is a 1965 film starring Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Guy Stockwell, Maurice Evans, Niall MacGinnis, Henry Wilcoxon and James Farentino, with Jon Alderson, Allen Jaffe, Sammy Ross, and Woodrow Parfrey. The film was directed by the future Oscar winning Director... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059896/ | USA | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^War+Lord,+The+(1965) | Based on Leslie Stevens Leslie Stevens Leslie Clark Stevens III was the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits and director of the cult horror film Incubus , starring William Shatner. He wrote an early work of New Age philosophy, Est: The Steersman Handbook .-Early life and career:Leslie Stevens was born in Washington, D.C... ' The Lovers. Charlton Heston Charlton Heston Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes... is a knight invoking the "right" to sleep with another man's bride on their wedding night. |
| 1966 | 16th c. | A Man for All Seasons A Man for All Seasons (1966 film) A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 film based on Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons about Sir Thomas More. It was released on December 12, 1966. Paul Scofield, who had played More in the West End stage premiere, also took the role in the film. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann, who had... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060665/ | UK | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Man+for+All+Seasons,+A+(1966) | The story of St. Thomas More Thomas More Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor... . |
| 1966 | 15th c. | Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublev (film) Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/ | USSR | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=Andrei+Rublev | Life of Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublev is considered to be the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes.-Biography:... the great 15th century Russian icon painter (Andrey Tarkovsky). |
| 1968 | 12th c. | The Lion in Winter The Lion in Winter (1968 film) The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama made by Avco Embassy Pictures, based on the Broadway play by James Goldman. It was directed by Anthony Harvey and produced by Joseph E... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063227/ | UK | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Lion+in+Winter,+The+(1968) | King Henry II's Henry II of England Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the... three sons all want to inherit the throne. His sons and wife Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England... variously plot. Based ten years after the events of the Revolt of 1173-1174 Revolt of 1173-1174 The Revolt of 1173–1174 was a rebellion against Henry II of England by three of his sons, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and rebel supporters. It lasted 18 months and ended in the revolt's failure: Henry's rebellious family members had to resign themselves to his continuing rule and were reconciled... . |
| 1976 | 7th c. | Mohammad, Messenger of God | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074896/ | UK/Lebanon | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Message,+The+(1976) | Also known as The Message. Tagline: The Story of Islam Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... . |
| 1982 | 16th c. | The Return of Martin Guerre The Return of Martin Guerre The Return of Martin Guerre is a 1982 French film directed by Daniel Vigne and based on historical events in France during the 16th century. .-Synopsis:... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084589/ | France | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Return+of+Martin+Guerre | Fictional story, based on actual trial records about an impostor in 16th century Southern France. |
| 1986 | 14th c. | The Name of the Rose The Name of the Rose (film) The Name of the Rose is a 1986 film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery is the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Christian Slater is his apprentice Adso of Melk, who are called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091605/ | France/Italy/Germany | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Name+of+the+Rose | Based on the novel by Umberto Eco Umberto Eco Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory... . |
| 1988 | 14th c. | The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is a 1988 feature film, an official Australian-New Zealand co-production, directed by Vincent Ward. It won numerous New Zealand and Australian awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film, and several awards at European fantasy film festivals... |
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095709/ | New Zealand | http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=The+Navigator%3A+A+Medieval+Odyssey | Seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, people dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand. |
See also
- Middle Ages in history
- List of films based on Arthurian legend
- List of films and television series featuring Robin Hood
- Joan of Arc in film
- King Lear in film
- Macbeth in film
Further reading
- Books
- John Aberth, A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film, 2003, ISBN 0-415-93886-4.
- Anke Bernau and Bettina Bildhauer, ed. Medieval Film (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009), ISBN 0719077028
- Amy de La Bretèque, L'imaginaire Médiéval Dans Le Cinéma Occidental (Paris: Champion, 2004).
- Richard Burt, Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008) ISBN 0230601251
- Andrew Elliott, Remaking the Middle Ages: The Methods of Cinema and History in Portraying the Medieval World (Jefferson: McFarland, 2011) ISBN 0786446242
- Nickolas Haydock, Movie Medievalism: The Imaginary Middle Ages (McFarland 2008). ISBN 978-0-7864-3443-5
- Nickolas Haydock and Edward L. Risden, eds. Hollywood in the Holy Land: Essays on Film Depictions of the Crusades and Christian-Muslim Clashes (McFarland, 2008).
- Laurie Finke and Martin B Shichtman, Cinematic Illuminations: The Middle Ages on Film (The Johns Hopkins University Press 2009) ISBN 978-0801893452
- Articles
- Richard Burt, "Getting Schmedieval: Of Manuscript and Film Parodies, Prologues, and Paratexts," special issue of Exemplaria on "Movie Medievalism," 19.2. (Summer 2007), 217-42, co-edited by Richard Burt and Nickolas Haydock.
- Richard Burt, "Re-embroidering the Bayeux Tapestry in Film and Media: the Flip Side of History in Opening and End Title Sequences," special issue of Exemplaria on "Movie Medievalism," 19.2. (Summer 2007), 327-50, co-edited by Richard Burt and Nickolas Haydock.
- Richard Burt, "Cutting and Running from the (Medieval) Middle East : The Uncanny Mises-hors-scène of Kingdom of Heaven's Double DVDs," Babel, N° 15, 1er semestre (2007), 247-298.
- "Richard Burt, "Border Skirmishes: Weaving Around the Bayeux Tapestry and Cinema in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and El Cid ," in Medieval Film, ed. Anke Bernau and Bettina Bildhauer (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009), 158-181.
- Nickolas Haydock, "Arthurian Melodrama, Chaucerian Spectacle and the Waywardness of Cinematic Pastiche in 'First Knight' and 'A Knight's Tale'" "Studies in Medievalism" 12 (2002): 5-38.
- Nickolas Haydock, "Shooting the Messenger: Luc Besson at War with Joan of Arc," special issue of "Exemplaria" on "Movie Medievalism," 19.2 (Summer 2007), co-edited by Richard Burt and Nickolas Haydock
- Nickolas Haydock, "Digital Divagations in a Hyperreal Camelot: Antoine Fuqua's 'King Arthur'" in Helen Fulton, ed. "Blackwell Companion to Arthurian Literature" (Blackwell, forthcoming 2008).
- David Williams, "Medieval Movies", The Yearbook of English Studies, 20 (1990), 1-32.
- Special issue of Cahiers de la Cinémathèque, "Le Moyen Âge au Cinéma", 42/43 (1985).
- Special issue of Babel on "Le Moyen Age mise-en-scène: Perspectives contemporaines," edited by Sandra Gorgievski and Xavier Leroux, N° 15, 1er semestre (2007).
- Filmographies and Bibliographies
- Kevin J. Harty, The Reel Middle Ages: American, Western and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Asian films about Medieval Europe, 1999, ISBN 0-7864-0541-4. The first comprehensive survey of films of the European Middle Ages. Over 900 films.
- Paul Halsall, Medieval History in the Movies Online list of over 200 movies depicting Medieval history. From the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
- David J. Williams, "Medieval Movies: A Filmography", Film & History 29:1-2 (1999):20-32.
- University classes
- HIST 4950: The Medieval World in Film History class at Georgia College & State UniversityGeorgia College & State UniversityGeorgia College & State University is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia, United States, with approximately 7,000 students...
by Dr. Deborah Vess. Last retrieved Jan. 2005 - ENG 4133 Section 6439: Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media English Class at University of FloridaUniversity of FloridaThe University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
by Dr. Richard Burt. Last retrieved April. 2009
- HIST 4950: The Medieval World in Film History class at Georgia College & State University
- Articles
- Arthur Lindley, "The ahistoricism of medieval film", from Screening The Past Journal.
- David J. Williams, "Looking at the Middle Ages in the Cinema: An Overview." Film & History 29:1-2 (1999): 8-19.
- Martha Driver, "Writing About Medieval Movies: Authenticity and History.", Film & History 29:1-2 (1999):5-7.
- Online resources