(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

I found an interesting list of movies set in the middle ages set up on the University of Toronto website. What's interesting is how few of them I've seen.

I found it by stumbling across The Anchoress as a movie featuring Christopher Eccleston.

Comments

[acampbell.livejournal.com]

How wonderful. Surely there are more than that, though. Or are there additional pages?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find additional pages, and it goes as far as V for Virgin. Maybe it's just that those are the ones that U. of T. has on hand. Note that my beloved The Lion in Winter is missing!

Offhand I'd add that, and the Brother Cadfael miniseries. Other suggestions?

[acampbell.livejournal.com]

Tons! Let me work on a list. Are we talking "good" medieval fics, or commercial ones (like the musical, "Camelot") or crap ones like some of those recently done? (King Arthur, Tristan and Isolde, etc.)

I'll bet you're right, though: those are the ones the university holds in its collection.

For starters, all the Robin Hood flicks, Ladyhawke, the many King Arthur films, some of the Edgar Allen Poe flicks (like Masque of the Red Death), A Walk With Love and Death...and then there are things like plays by Shakespeare set in the Middle Ages...

I'm not trying to complicate things, of course. I like their list! in fact, it has quite a few I've not seen. And they don't seem to be claiming it's a definitive or exhaustive list, so that's cool.

The Seventh Seal will always be the definitive medieval film for me. It was one of the things that sucked me into my love for the period, back around age 14. The community college where I took summer music classes used to show it in the lecture theater over and over all day long to its Freshman Comp classes, and one day I wandered in, and the rest is personal history...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I love The Seventh Seal too! I first saw it when the BBC actually used to show good movies...

I've been into things Arthurian since infancy, but what really set me off with my 12C passion was the BBC's serialisation of The Talisman across the winter of 1980-81. The secondary villain did dreadful things to my h/c complex, and when I discovered that his real-life original was actually wonderfully heroic and glamorous... Well, the rest is mediæval history!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the BBC version of The Talisman, either. I see there are many things I should be watching!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Sadly, they've never repeated it or released it commercially - I wonder if it's because the blond Scottish hero blacks up at one point, in disguise as a Nubian slave? Conrad was portrayed as too young and a brunet, but rather cute. More interesting, even in Scott's version, than the insipid hero. And of course, my h/c complex kicked in...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, in movie adaptations of Scott - what few I have seen - I prefer the villains to the heroes. It could be the casting but I think it's also the writing and the role.

I suspect The Talisman was never shown in my vicinity. Since it's subject matter is dear to my heart - even though Scott makes me squirm - I'd have made a point of watching it.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, in movie adaptations of Scott - what few I have seen - I prefer the villains to the heroes. It could be the casting but I think it's also the writing and the role.

It's the writing. Scott's heroes are always insufferably wet. His secondary characters and villains are more colourful.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Scott's heroes are always insufferably wet.

Sadly, yes. His heroines too.

What a waste.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Are we talking "good" medieval fics, or commercial ones (like the musical, "Camelot") or crap ones

Was Pippin ever made into a movie? I loved that one!

War is a science
A breeding ground for brains
For though I cannot write my name
The men whose pens have brought them fame
Write endless monographs explaining my campaigns...

I haven't seen Tristan and Isolde yet - is it really bad?

What is A Walk With Love and Death?

We could always make a long, definitive list of everything we can think of, then make sub-headings.

I haven't seen The Seventh Seal - I'd like to.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I've heard bad things of Tristan + Isolde - chiefly the casting. The young male lead is very "white bread", and Rufus Sewell is Mark. Somehow credibility collapses there...

I've done reviews of a few more Crusade movies: the DeMille one, and the 1954 version of The Talisman, King Richard & the Crusaders. Not to mention the Egyptian Saladin, which has a female Hospitaller knight (not just a nursing sister!). All of them are nasty to poor Conrad...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One of these days I'll be watching Tristan and Isolde and will let you know what I think. I was hoping it might be good, but then, I'm always the optimist... even when I should know better.