Author Topic: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets  (Read 94457 times)

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Offline jehan

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #135 on: March 01, 2009, 01:07:14 PM »
Hi,

I think Al Pacino is now too old to play Richard III.
And please, let's get a British actor to play him.  There aren't many good American actors anymore...

Larry

I don't agree that there aren't many good American actors, but much I like Al Pacino, I agree he's too old.  Richard was 32 when he died-  Pacino is nearly 70.  I think a relatively unknown Brit would be the best.
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Offline Vecchiolarry

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #136 on: March 01, 2009, 06:31:41 PM »
Hi,

I was thinking along the lines of Clive Owen.  I don't know how old he is (and he does look a little gnarled around the edges);  but considering the very tough times Richard III lived in, he may very well have looked older than 32......
Perhaps Emily Blunt could play Anne Neville.  She may not want to though as she has just finished Victoria...

Larry

alixaannencova

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #137 on: March 01, 2009, 09:26:39 PM »
Oh how thrilling about Sunne in Splendour. I adored this book almost as much as 'Katherine' by Anya Seton!


Who could play Dickon.....I agree about Al Pacino being far too long in the tooth (think sabre toothed tiger and you'll see my idea of how long!!!) and Clive Owen may be getting on a bit too....same goes for Rupert Graves....he may have been good once, but then he was a tad too 'pretty' really to have played Richard! i thought, it is implied, if my memory serves me right, that Richard is a dark haired adonis more than equal to Brother Ned in the book!

If it is done properly the actor should be British and able to play a youthful Richard onwards with maybe a child actor for the earlier bits, if they are included in an adapted screenplay obviously!

I think Ben Whishaw would make an awfully good Richard and then again what about Rafi Gavron....he may be a tad young though! Tom Sturridge is another option, but then he was positively 'MDF' in the otherwise sublime 'Being Julia.' Perhaps his acting skills have matured since then. I just remember being rather struck by him for some reason and I sure it was not just his questionable acting at that time!
As for Anne, goodness me the candidates are endless...I shall mull this over.


Ooooh and who would we cast as the frightful Edouard? Now that would be fun, and Clarence come to that...lovely but nonetheless 'evil' looking young villains and as for Margaret of Anjou! Oh what fun! Can't wait...just hope it doesn't get put on the back burner for too long!
« Last Edit: March 01, 2009, 10:00:21 PM by alixaannencova »

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #138 on: October 08, 2016, 12:58:02 PM »
Tudor movies on youtube:
The private Life of Henry VIII
Anne of 1000 Days
Fire Over England
The Virgin Queen 1955 and a miniseries of the same name

They also have Gunpowder treason and Plot Mary Queen of scots

Offline Kimberly

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #139 on: October 10, 2016, 01:25:37 PM »
Oh I just love The Private Life of Henry VIII ! I know its a load of old toot but Merle Oberon is breathtaking as Anne Boleyn.
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Offline Lochlanach

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #140 on: December 09, 2016, 06:06:23 AM »
For UK viewers there is a new BBC series on right now , 'Six Wives with Lucy Worsley' about Henry VIII's spouses obviously. It is shot in an unusual manner - Worsley dressing up (plus ca change) in period clothing and witnessing the action as a bystander (a maid) whilst narrating the events in front of her , and even 'acting' on occasion. Depending on your viewpoint ; this is either an interesting and innovative approach to history , or plumbing new depths of self indulgence and gimmickry . I can't decide which. Still , it's a story that never ceases to fascinate.

Offline Kimberly

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #141 on: December 10, 2016, 11:06:33 AM »
I watched it and enjoyed it. If it introduces people to history long may it continue.
Meanwhile, on BBC4 there is a 3 parter on the Hapsburgs by Simon Seabag Montifiore ( what is it with that name!!!). That is worth a watch too.
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rosieposie

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #142 on: February 27, 2017, 06:15:17 AM »
Horrible Histories TV show did a song parody of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights and it was about Mary Tudor.   It is rather amusing and a details about Mary.    Please remember Horrible Histories is an educational show for children, teenagers.    It is teaching history in a fun way with skits, songs and parodies of mixing modern TV shows with historical characters and events. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCIMmpETaA

Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #143 on: July 09, 2017, 04:01:33 PM »
There is a book "Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe unlock'd" Janet Arnold that is the book from what I understand on Queen Elizabeth I's clothes.

Offline Louis_Charles

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ELIZABETH: THE FORGOTTEN YEARS by John Guy
« Reply #144 on: August 16, 2018, 03:51:53 PM »
   Excellent for what it is, not quite so for what Guy intended it to be. His aim was to portray Elizabeth with fresh insights that changed more traditional ways of looking at her, particularly the way she has been represented in popular culture. It is undeniably true that movies like Elizabeth and Essex, The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age have permanently shaped the way that Elizabeth I has been viewed (by the public at least), although somewhat oddly Guy focuses upon Fire Over England. He also mentions Glenda Jackson's towering performance in Elizabeth R. All of these represented the hagiography that grew up around her thanks to historians like Neale, although the elements of the legend were cemented within thirty years of her death by Camden's Annales.

I am not sure Guy has presented enough evidence to contradict the hagiography. If anything, his work reinforces the estimation in which Elizabeth can be held as a ruler, if not as a personality. She was essentially interested in two things, foreign policy and the Church. Guy is persuasive in debunking her fabled "marriage" to her average subjects as something that existed on anything but a theoretical level. The 1590s were excruciating in terms of harvests, and Elizabeth did nothing to alleviate the sufferings endured by commoners. Indeed, her taxation increased at the same time prices rose. Her view was strictly hierarchical, with herself at the top of the heap. This also caused her to be antipathetic to Puritans (not enough deference), Roman Catholics (ditto, with the allegiance to the Pope thrown in) and any attempt by ordinary citizens to limit the power of the Queen in terms of such things as granting ruinous monopolies to courtiers. However, in his epilogue, Guy admits that she was successful in (mostly) keeping England out of ruinous war. It is unpleasant, but not news, to read of her ingratitude to her soldiers and sailors after the Armada and sorties into France and Holland. Guy drily records again and again that the Queen did not stint herself on any significant level. At the very end of the book he uses Ralegh's phrase "she was a lady surprised by time" as a coda, then adds his explanation --- she ruled at a time when her concept of her authority's base had begun to be questioned. But surely most of her reign passed before this arose? It probably did gall Elizabeth Tudor that some of the hotheads who surrounded her --- Essex and Ralegh most prominently --- failed to take her seriously as a military leader because of course she could not take the field. Again, Guy gives numerous examples of the advice with which she peppered them, most of which they ignored. Guy has to admit that the majority of it was sound. Only a lunatic could have maintained that the English should have attempted to take and hold a coastal Spanish city as a port from which further attacks could have been launched. It is to Elizabeth's credit that she refused to play the role as arbiter of the Reformation and Keeper of the Military Flame for Protestants. She would have bankrupted England, as Philip II did Spain on the other side.

So Elizabeth pretty much stays the same figure. None of the material Guy has uncovered (to his credit) seriously alters her status as incredibly good at her job.

What The Forgotten Years does accomplish is provide a good look at the period of the reign most often ignored. Guy uses the end of her menstrual cycle as a liberating moment; she was no longer hostage to her council's insistence that she marry (although he fails to really confront the fact that she had ignored it when she might have had children) and could begin to really rule as herself. It would probably be more correct to date this from the execution of Mary Stuart and the following year's defeat of the Armada, when her personal stock was riding high. Guy relentlessly chronicles how stressful the last full decade of the reign was, with it effectively ending with the fall of Essex.

The writing is excellent, and the book is a pleasure to read. Recommended for anyone with an interest in her or the general period. (less)
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Offline JamesAPrattIII

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #145 on: December 26, 2018, 05:38:31 PM »
There is a movie in the works "The Spanish princess" on Catherine of Aragon

Offline TimM

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #146 on: July 05, 2019, 11:06:35 AM »
When does it come out?
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Offline Kimberly

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #147 on: July 25, 2019, 02:21:28 AM »
It's out and it's the usual cr*p, just like The White Queen and The White Princess.
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Offline CeridwenLynne

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Re: Books/Movies on the Tudors and Plantagenets
« Reply #148 on: December 01, 2019, 01:20:11 PM »
I have been reading Allison Weir's series on Henry VIII's wives.  They are fiction but they are well written and an overall good read. So far there are books on Catherine Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Anne of Cleves.