Costume Dramas
Until a few years ago, I was a huge movie fan. In addition to watching lots of movies via my Netflix subscription, I’d go to at least one current movie a week in the movie theater. That all ended when illness, work, and other real life problems got in the way. Well, finally, after nearly a two year absence, my love of movies is back!
It started a few weeks ago when I went to see The King’s Speech. Within days of seeing that, I finally went out and saw the latest Harry Potter movie, and have been scouring reviews for other ideas. Any suggestions?
I don’t currently have a Netflix subscription, but thanks to my local library, have access to an incredible variety of movies on DVD. In the past few weeks I’ve watched Sherlock Holmes (with Robert Downey), The Young Victoria, and Pirate Radio among others. I’m going to try out getting DVDs at the library for the next few months. For now, it seems nearly as easy as my old Netflix subscription, and has the added bonus of being free. I work just a few blocks from the library, so it’s easy to walk there and pick up my DVDs once I get an email that they’re ready. The library online catalog isn’t quite as simple to browse as I recall Netflix being, but so far, it’s working for me.
What I really seem to be craving at the moment are costume dramas. For this weekend, I picked up some DVDs of a few of the Hercule Poirot mysteries featuring David Suchet. I haven’t watched all of them by any means, but the ones that I have seen are generally set in interesting locales, and give a great sense of place and time.
Do you watch DVDs at home? If so, do you get them from Netflix, a video store (and they seem to be disappearing quickly), your library, or someplace else? And more importantly, any suggestions for some great, recent, costume dramas?
LinnieGayl
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These are some great suggestions! Thanks so much. Based on these, I put in an order for one of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes (thanks, Sandy), The Duchess (I forgot about that one), and the Girl With the Pearl Earring!
I watched the first two seasons of The Tudors, but missed the last two, so that’s another great suggestion.
How fun to read your post. Just saw the Kings speech yesterday. what a treat!
Have you seen “The Duchess” with Keira Knightley? Talk about fantastic costumes! And of course beautiful scenery and it’s based on a true story. Also really enjoyed “The Forsyte Saga.”
I second the recommendations for Robin Hood and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
We’re in a rural area. There used to be an AWESOME video store relatively near us, but they closed up several years ago. Our son just gifted us with access to his Netflix account, which has its pluses and minuses — one minus being that so relatively view of their films are captioned (and captioning is a MUST in our household).
Our local libraries are small and their selection is limited, ‘though one can sometimes find something enjoyable.
The local Chevron rents a fair number of new releases, and we also rent from the Blockbuster Express kiosks that have popped up here locally.
As for recent costume dramas…hmmm. There’s “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchet. Not real recent but a magnificent film is “Girl with a Pearl Earring” — stunning scenery as well as costumes. Another not real recent one is “Bleak House” (PBS showed it).
I’m in the middle of re-watching the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes (very, very slowly), and I’m still as much in love as ever. Gutted, though, that they didn’t make “A Study in Scarlet”.
I saw “Frost/Nixon” recently and quite liked it. “Good Night and Good Luck” is an excellent WWII reporter movie. Still LOVE “The Queen” (it’s Brit, but not a costume drama). Apparently “Downton Abbey” is really good, and which brings me to “Gosford Park” (not super recent), one of my all-time favourite movies. Nanny McPhee, if you’re feeling whimsical.
For a great film to see at the movies try “True Grit”. It was incredible.
We do get DVD’s from Netflix but lately we are surviving on Roku. Just saw Shutter Island that way. Amazing movie but intense.
maggie b.
LG, you should start exploring the many episodes of Sherlock Holmes played by Jeremy Brett. There are lots of them and to many of us, he remains the definitive Sherlock.
I’m using a combination of Netflix and my library system (it always amuses me when my libraries have something Netflix doesn’t).
I don’t know if you’ve seen the Tudors series from Showtime, they have all 4 seasons out on dvd at this point so there’s plenty to dig into if you haven’t.