For all its pronounced weirdness, freak visionary Yorgos Lanthimos’s jet-black comedy of ill manners is nonetheless based in some level of truth: in the early 18th century, a lesbian love affair did purportedly occur between a gout-stricken Queen Anne (portrayed by Olivia Colman) and two combative cousins (Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz). But Lanthimos douses it all in his singularly odd aesthetic, lending the whole contentious affair a fever-dream quality. It’s the strangest entry on this list, and also the ickiest, making it perhaps the most accurate to the time period.
Movies are, at their heart, a transportive medium, and there is no genre that can whisk viewers off to another time and place than a great period piece. You know the clichés: big dresses, bigger wigs, myriad political entanglements and social strictures waiting to be defied by the greatest love affairs in history. Sure, pre-20th century European aristocracy was not exactly a splendid time for everyone, and the best dramas set in those eras make that point plain. But as the modern world gets more complicated and increasingly stressful, it’s no wonder that the world of Jane Austen and Edith Wharton have served as means of retreat for generations, with Netflix’s mega-hits Bridgerton and its spinoff, Queen Charlotte, as the most recent examples of the enduring popularity of franchises set in 1800s high society.
Unfortunately, the third season of Bridgerton is months away – perhaps even longer, depending on the ongoing writers and actors strikes. But don’t you worry: there is quite literally a century’s worth of romantic costume drama available to consume. Here are 25 of the most lavish to tide you over.
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