Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks
is Movies about Royalty
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Hello! Today's theme is right up my alley because a great many of movies about royalty are period dramas and I love watching them. Now see if you can guess what my theme within a theme is.
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
I think this is one of my favourite movies set in the particular period. Geneviève Bujold was great as the smart and feisty Anne Boleyn who later became Queen Anne when she married Henry VIII. Her Anne is so much better written and performed than Portman's Anne in The Other Boleyn Girl. Oh and costumes here are gorgeous! One of the prettiest scenes I think was in the earlier part of the movie in the garden as Anne waits for Henry Percy.
Lady Jane (1986)
I knew absolutely nothing of Lady Jane other than having seen that popular painting of her. So I went into the movie blind, no pun intended. The movie begins with a hunt which was surprising but now having seen it is very apt. I guess the other reason that attracted me to this movie is that a very young Helena Bonham Carter stars in it and she looks like a child. She was practically drowning in the huge gowns she had to where. Cary Elwes is in this too as Lady Jane's husband and they're both so young and cute together. One of the reasons I like watching shows from this period is all the fascinating plotting and maneuvering that occurs which this movie had quite a lot as well; it was pretty much the real game of thrones then wasn't it?
Marie Antoinette (2006)
I've picked Marie Antoinette before for TMP #5 and I'm picking it once again because it fits perfectly with my theme within a theme this week, which I hope you've guessed what it is by now. Now I'm not a very big fan of Marie Antoinette, the movie not the person, but I enjoyed watching it. It certainly is a gorgeous looking movie. I absolutely love the movie's colour palette and I think I've warmed up to the whole thing with using rock music for it's soundtrack.
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So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?
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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks
Thursday Movie Picks #28: Movies with Colour in the Title
Thursday Movie Picks #17: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs
Thursday Movie Picks #25: Bank Robberies
Thursday Movie Picks #13: Zombie Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret
Thursday Movie Picks #28: Movies with Colour in the Title
Thursday Movie Picks #17: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs
Thursday Movie Picks #25: Bank Robberies
Thursday Movie Picks #13: Zombie Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret
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Great minds think alike again! I also have Lady Jane and Maire Antoinette! Love both the films!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of your picks, but very interested to watch Lady Jane. Marie Antoinette's the only Sofia Coppola film I have yet to watch. I didn't have time to write a post but my picks would have been The Young Victoria, Farewell My Queen, and Donkey Skin.
ReplyDeleteJust saw Donkey Skin this year and it was so beautiful to look at. I liked it overall though the ick factor of the basic story was high. Catherine Deneuve was wonderful.
Deleteooohh...I want to see Farewell My Queen. Donkey Skin is new to me. Will have to look it up.
DeleteLove your picks!! Actually we match on two, I was surprised to see Lady Jane popping up so often-I really like it but have always found that a lot of people I mention it too are unfamiliar so I'm happy to see it has fans.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge Tudor history era fan and love most of the various films for which their story is the basis. Though I thought The Other Boleyn Girl with it's almost complete falsifying of the facts was a piece of trash except for Kristen Scott Thomas's fine work as the girls mother. Be that as it may I love Anne of the Thousand Days even if it could have used a snip here and there. Bujold and Burton are brilliant.
I haven't seen this version of Marie Antoinette, it's on my list though, but have seen the earlier MGM version with Norma Shearer. I'm sure it's quite different but her story is a fascinating one and the Shearer version is amazingly lush.
This is a favorite genre of mine so I was only able to pare my choices down to five and I juggled a bit moving Queen Margot up and since it is being spotlighted elsewhere Lady Jane down into my honorable mentions.
Queen Margot (1994)-Intense, brutally violent story of political machinations in 16th century France focusing on the uneasy marriage allegiance of Marguerite de Valois (Isabelle Adjani) and Henri de Navarre (Daniel Auteuil) engineered by Marguerite’s mother, the power hungry Catherine de Medicis (Virna Lisi) and the chaos that surrounds them. Adjani is brilliant as is her custom but perhaps the real stand out is former glamour girl Virna Lisi as the morally bankrupt queen mother resembling nothing so much as a vampire come to life with a soul as dry as dust.
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)-Stately film version of the upheaval that rocked the English throne when Henry VIII became enamored of Anne Boleyn and in his quest for a son to succeed him decided to divorce Catherine of Aragon, break with the Pope and form the Church of England. A trifle too deliberately paced but Richard Burton as Henry and Genevieve Bujold as Anne are both excellent.
The Swan (1956)-Based on a Ferenc Molnar play Grace Kelly plays a princess of lower standing who is being considered as the bride to the heir to the throne. Sound familiar? Beside Grace, in her second to last film, the cast includes Alec Guinness as the prince as well as Louis Jourdan, Agnes Moorehead and many other fine players. This high gloss, somewhat sedate comedy was a cash grab by MGM to the point that they held up the release of the film to correspond with the wedding date of the then Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco
Honorable Mentions-Princess O'Rourke (1943)-Breezy little comedy of mistaken identity. When visiting princess Olivia de Havilland is erroneously taken for a poor waif heading for a job as a maid in San Francisco she decides to take advantage of the misunderstanding and find out how commoners live. Taken under the wing of pilot Robert Cummings and his friends Jack Carson and Jane Wyman she manages to find herself in all kinds of unexpected situations including a marriage proposal.
Lady Jane (1986)-Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes portray Lady Jane Grey, England’s nine day Queen, and her husband Gilford Dudley in this romanticized version of the power struggle for the throne that ignited upon Henry VIII’s death. There’s some revisionist history involved but this follows the story pretty well and the acting is superior.
Well I guess Lady Jane being only queen for 9 days is why many people are unfamiliar with it. Henry VIII, his six wives and Elizabeth gets all the attention.
DeleteAhh...The Tudor era is fascinating and they make great drama for TV/Movies.
I only have a layperson knowledge of the period, I know who's who and the major stuff that happens, but other that I can't pin point what was made up in The Other Boleyn Girl movie. I did however read the book upon which the movie is based. I do know that in reality not much is known about Mary and the book is from her perspective, so there was room to fictionalise a lot of things. In short I enjoyed the book so much better than the movie.
I've only see parts of Marie Antionette, it's one I've been meaning to finish. Haven't seen the other two. They both sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnne of a Thousand Days is an excellent film as is Lady Jane. They both show all the treachery and politics resulting in death. I have not seen Marie Antoinette and one day, I will
ReplyDeleteHaha yes. Basically being queen isn't that great.
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