The Roman Empire
I, Claudius (1976) One of my favorite movies of all time, it is really a BBC miniseries, so its about twelve hours long. If you watch the whole thing, and prove to me you didnt fall asleep in the middle, Ill give you double points. This movie covers the development of the Roman empire from the point of view of the emperor Claudius. It is completely accurate to Suetonius Lives of the Caesars, which means it probably isnt accurate historically, but it is full of all the most salacious gossip about their emperors that a wealthy empire could come up with.Spartacus (1960) A classic epic film, the fictionalized account of an actual slave revolt that took place in southern Italy under the late Roman Republic.The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) The story of a medieval Frenchman who returns to his home village after having been away at war for years. His friends and family suspect him of being an impostor. More entertaining than it sounds from this description, it is also interesting because it is a true story, found in the French archives by a historian in the 1970s.The Lion in Winter (1968) Yes, there is a later remake of this movie, but watch the early one with Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter OToole as Henry II. This is the story of Henrys reign in England in the High Middle Ages, his battles with France over his territories there, and his battles with his family, including his powerful wife and his pain-in-the-neck sons, particularly Richard and John.The Seventh Seal (1957) An Ingmar Bergman film about the Black Death and its effect on European culture. Does the film portray the ways that medieval Europeans dealt with the plague, or really just what 1950s culture thinks about death?
