Period Pieces directed by a Woman
by worthawatchisnotareview | created - 4 months ago | updated - 3 months ago | PublicI prefer contemporary stories. These are movies set in a previous decade and/or century with my cutoff date being about the 1950's.
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1. Marie Antoinette (2006)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 14 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Steve Coogan
Votes: 121,936 | Gross: $15.96M
2. Lady Chatterley's Lover (I) (2022)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance
An unhappily married aristocrat begins a torrid affair with the gamekeeper on her husband's country estate.
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | Stars: Emma Corrin, Jack O'Connell, Matthew Duckett, Joely Richardson
Votes: 23,041
3. Lady Chatterley (2006)
R | 168 min | Drama, Romance
A French adaptation of the second (and much less well-known) version of D.H. Lawrence's erotic tale.
Director: Pascale Ferran | Stars: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coulloc'h, Hippolyte Girardot, Hélène Alexandridis
Votes: 4,772 | Gross: $0.69M
4. The Piano (1993)
R | 121 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin
Votes: 95,190 | Gross: $40.16M
5. Bright Star (2009)
PG | 119 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox
Votes: 28,707 | Gross: $4.44M
6. The Power of the Dog (2021)
R | 126 min | Drama, Western
Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Votes: 193,891
1920's
7. The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
PG-13 | 144 min | Drama, Romance
An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin Donovan
Votes: 12,677 | Gross: $3.69M
8. The Last Mistress (2007)
Unrated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
Director: Catherine Breillat | Stars: Asia Argento, Fu'ad Aït Aattou, Roxane Mesquida, Claude Sarraute
Votes: 3,789 | Gross: $0.79M
9. Suffragette (2015)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, History
In 1912 London, a young working mother is galvanized into radical political activism supporting the right for women to vote, and is willing to meet violence with violence to achieve this end.
Director: Sarah Gavron | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep
Votes: 44,760 | Gross: $4.69M
1910's
10. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,665 | Gross: $0.39M
1820's
11. Harriet (I) (2019)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Director: Kasi Lemmons | Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn
Votes: 30,736
12. Radioactive (2019)
PG-13 | 109 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The incredible true story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world.
Director: Marjane Satrapi | Stars: Rosamund Pike, Yvette Feuer, Mirjam Novak, Ralph Berkin
Votes: 21,737
13. Vanity Fair (2004)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
Growing up poor in London, Becky Sharp defies her poverty-stricken background and ascends the social ladder alongside her best friend, Amelia Sedley.
Director: Mira Nair | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Votes: 23,506 | Gross: $16.14M
14. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
R | 122 min | Drama, Romance
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Director: Céline Sciamma | Stars: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino
Votes: 109,666 | Gross: $3.76M
15. Mary Shelley (2017)
PG-13 | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Life and facts of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who at 16 met 21 year old poet Percy Shelley, resulting in the writing of Frankenstein.
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour | Stars: Elle Fanning, Bel Powley, Owen Richards, Joanne Froggatt
Votes: 17,779 | Gross: $0.11M
16. My Brilliant Career (1979)
G | 100 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A proud young woman in early 20th century Australia must choose between marriage and independence.
Director: Gillian Armstrong | Stars: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb
Votes: 4,803
17. The Countess (2009)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Drama, History
A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.
Director: Julie Delpy | Stars: Julie Delpy, Daniel Brühl, William Hurt, Anamaria Marinca
Votes: 8,661
18. A League of Their Own (1992)
PG | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna
Votes: 121,097 | Gross: $107.53M
1940's
19. Frida (2002)
R | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
Director: Julie Taymor | Stars: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Mía Maestro
Votes: 95,346 | Gross: $25.89M
20. Jeanne du Barry (2023)
117 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of Jeanne Bécu, who was born as the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished seamstress in 1743 and went on to rise through the Court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress.
Director: Maïwenn | Stars: Maïwenn, Johnny Depp, Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud
Votes: 10,758
21. Hysteria (2011)
R | 100 min | Biography, Comedy, Romance
The truth of how Mortimer Granville devised the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Director: Tanya Wexler | Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones
Votes: 33,188 | Gross: $1.80M
22. Emily (2022)
R | 130 min | Biography, Drama, History
"Emily" imagines the transformative, exhilarating, and uplifting journey to womanhood of a rebel and a misfit, one of the world's most famous, enigmatic, and provocative writers, who died, too soon, at age 30.
Director: Frances O'Connor | Stars: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead, Alexandra Dowling
Votes: 8,136
23. Wuthering Heights (2011)
Not Rated | 129 min | Drama, Romance
A poor boy of unknown origins is rescued from poverty and taken in by the Earnshaw family where he develops an intense relationship with his young foster sister, Cathy.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Kaya Scodelario, James Howson, Solomon Glave, Shannon Beer
Votes: 11,009 | Gross: $0.10M
24. Corsage (2022)
114 min | Biography, Drama, History
A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth Of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.
Director: Marie Kreutzer | Stars: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz, Jeanne Werner
Votes: 9,694
25. Belle (2013)
PG | 100 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The biracial daughter, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), of Royal Navy Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) is raised by aristocratic Great-uncle Lord William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) in 18th century England.
Director: Amma Asante | Stars: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson
Votes: 33,143 | Gross: $10.73M
26. Shirley (2020)
R | 107 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Director: Josephine Decker | Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman
Votes: 13,335
Late 1940's or early 1950's
27. Emma. (2020)
PG | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1800s England, a well meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends.
Director: Autumn de Wilde | Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth, Josh O'Connor
Votes: 62,766
28. Little Women (1994)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The March sisters live and grow in post-Civil War America.
Director: Gillian Armstrong | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes
Votes: 63,611 | Gross: $50.08M
29. Little Women (2019)
PG | 135 min | Drama, Romance
Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
Director: Greta Gerwig | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen
Votes: 246,061 | Gross: $108.10M
30. Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
Mary Stuart's (Saoirse Ronan's) attempt to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie), Queen of England, finds her condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution.
Director: Josie Rourke | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn
Votes: 55,353 | Gross: $16.47M
31. Orlando (1992)
PG-13 | 94 min | Biography, Drama, Fantasy
After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Quentin Crisp, Jimmy Somerville
Votes: 18,726 | Gross: $5.29M
32. Total Eclipse (1995)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane Bohringer, Dominique Blanc
Votes: 16,782 | Gross: $0.34M
33. Europa Europa (1990)
R | 112 min | Drama, History, War
A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Solomon Perel, Marco Hofschneider, René Hofschneider, André Wilms
Votes: 17,481 | Gross: $5.58M
34. Daughters of the Dust (1991)
TV-PG | 113 min | Drama, History, Romance
A languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.
Director: Julie Dash | Stars: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbarao, Trula Hoosier
Votes: 3,292 | Gross: $1.64M
35. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women (2017)
R | 108 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of psychologist William Moulton Marston, and his polyamorous relationship with his wife and their mistress who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman.
Director: Angela Robinson | Stars: Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, Connie Britton
Votes: 28,653 | Gross: $1.59M
36. A Serious Game (2016)
115 min | Drama, Romance
An adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg's novel "The Serious Game" from 1912. The great Swedish love story.
Director: Pernilla August | Stars: Sverrir Gudnason, Karin Franz Körlof, Liv Mjönes, Michael Nyqvist
Votes: 1,426
37. Vita & Virginia (2018)
Unrated | 110 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The fascinating true story of the love affair between socialite and popular author Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf.
Director: Chanya Button | Stars: Gemma Arterton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isabella Rossellini, Rupert Penry-Jones
Votes: 4,851 | Gross: $0.04M
38. Unbroken (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Biography, Drama
After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
Votes: 182,774 | Gross: $115.64M
39. Mudbound (2017)
R | 134 min | Drama, War
Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.
Director: Dee Rees | Stars: Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige
Votes: 54,421
40. Wonder Woman (2017)
PG-13 | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.
Director: Patty Jenkins | Stars: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Lucy Davis
Votes: 699,828 | Gross: $412.56M
41. The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History
Keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, must save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion in WWII Poland.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl, Timothy Radford
Votes: 46,595 | Gross: $17.45M
42. Johnny Dangerously (1984)
PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy, Crime
Set in the 1930s, an honest, good-hearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's sky-rocketing medical bills.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Maureen Stapleton
Votes: 16,412
43. First Cow (2019)
PG-13 | 122 min | Drama, Western
A skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business.
Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Alia Shawkat, John Magaro, Dylan Smith, Ryan Findley
Votes: 21,978
44. The Beguiled (2017)
R | 93 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads to jealousy and betrayal.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Colin Farrell
Votes: 61,763 | Gross: $10.58M
1860's
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