You asked for it, so here’s an occasional open thread to bitch about anything tangentially related to history, costume, movies, or TV shows! Or whatever else is on your mind right now. Note that URLs are automatically held for moderation, but most anything else goes as long as you’re not bitchier than we are!
How is it already August? How is it already 16 months of pandemic? How are we all coping? Your Frock Flicker team here is digging deep for stuff to watch and review, that’s for sure. We’re just plugging along and hope everyone’s vaccinated and masking up so the world can get a handle on this virus, and hopefully we can cope a little easier.
What’s helping you make it through these days?
The Last Duel: I know at some point we’re going to talk about The Hair, right? :D (period or not, Matt and Ben should not be the ones wearing it)
The hair does look… iffy let’s say. The variety of accents threw me, so I googled it. (I guess I’ve been conditioned to expect all history to be British based on accents? It’s probably good they didn’t all try for French accents, but not having everyone have the same accent considering they’re all from roughly the same area was confusing.) I really want to read the source book now–looks super interesting, particularly as someone interested in historical trials.
I have very much been enjoying Schmigadoon, which is in somewhat nebulous frock flick territory, as it’s a pastiche of golden age musicals. So they’re doing the 1950s’ interpretation of the 1910s-ish to the 1940s-ish (the only frame of reference I have being that they definitely exist post 1907, since they have an easter egg acknowledging Oklahoma as a state). I don’t think it’s bad enough for Snark Week, but it’s definitely not Historically Accurate by any means.
Just saw “Casanova, Last Love” (clunky title; the original was simply “Last Love”). I’m no expert in these matters, but I thought the costumes and wigs were ravishing; reminded me of the 1988 “Dangerous Liaisons,” with a more meditative, velvety texture. Good review here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/casanova-last-love-reviewed-a-historical-drama-evokes-modern-injustices
Finally got around to watching House of Eliott. Hubs had to mop up the drool on the floor.
I LOVED House of Eliott back in the day!! Louise Lombard looked sooo beautiful in every episode!
I’m watching a South Korean series called Mr Queen. Billed as a comedy, but it’s got more intrigue that’s really keeping me enthralled. And glorious costuming! Gorgeous cast!
LEONARDO. I got so fed up I didn’t finish it. What a load of cr@p. I suspect the costumes were mostly recycled but nobody told the actors how to wear them. Lots of poncing along corridors holding up skirts. Bah. See also: overacting. Especially the eponymous lead. Same reason I stopped watching Poldark, all that emoting in one channel -cringy.
Such a wasted opportunity…
Ah yes, the dreaded skirt hiking! I have a book on period dress and movement that emphasizes that skirts should only be lifted when absolutely necessary, and if you know what you’re doing it’s almost never necessary. Maybe when going upstairs or faced with a muddy road. Otherwise, no.
Or running for you life, of course. 😁
I keep hoping Leonardo will show up on a streaming service I have so I can do a snarky review, but not yet, darn it.
Looking forward to the Snark👏🏻…would have loved to see some of the episodes, to really get a grasp of how bad the show ‘Leonardo’ really is….
Actually, that’s the thing that REALLY annoys me. So many stories will only get one airing, and if the airing is sh!te then that’s it. It’s all the chances to tell a story properly, costume it properly, that are being thrown away on soap opera renfaire level cr@p. I mean the only ray of hope is that since there’s no top end to the retelling of MQOS, perhaps one day we’ll get a decent one!
watching i, claudius for a second time after finishing it for the first time last week! i literally can’t get enough of the screenplay, or the shiny bitchy roman tiaras
Where did you find it?
it’s on amazon! pretty sure it’s free ;)
Please review “Why Women Kill”!!!! One of the storylines in season 1 has costumes from the ’50s/’60s, and season 2 has AMAZING costumes from 1949.
Just saw The Last Letter from Your Lover. It’s set in 1965, with a modern love story thrown in. It was cute, quibbles aside. So it barely qualifies as half a frock flick.
It’s unexpected but satisfied to see an academic paper that cracks hard on Philippa Gregory’s depictions and her treatment of history, “‘There is more to the story than this, of course’: Character and Affect in Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen”.
On the second note, been binge watch a ton of fairy tale movies lately such as Tales of Tale, Peau d’âne, and Company of Wolves. I absolutely dig hard into the costumes and production of them.
Interesting article, and quite readable in spite of the academic-speak title.
IMO Elizabeth, like Anne Boleyn, resisted the royal advances because she had too much self respect to become a notch in the King’s bedpost. As the article points out Elizabeth is vulnerable, in desperate need of royal favor, she is taking an enormous risk by denying the king. Her reputation is at stake and it matters because if she loses it she will not only ruin her chances for a second marriage but expose her sons to ridicule at best, questions about their legitimacy at worse. She prefers to risk the king’s revenge.
Then he offers marriage. Elizabeth must have been stunned. There was no way she was deliberately angling for a proposal, it was so utterly impossible. Everybody knew Warwick was negotiating a marriage to Bona of Savoy. Somehow Edward convinced her of his sincerity. He was a handsome, dashing young man, it’s very probable she found him attractive but no medieval woman would ignore the practical advantages of a match! Or the dangers. Elizabeth must have thought hard about both the incredible advantage of becoming queen to herself and her family, and also about the hostility she would receive from the most powerful men in England. Her feelings would not have been first priority.
Agree on that personally. While I have no doubt that Elizabeth and Edward were at least fond of each other, the economic advantages from the marriage would had definitely been Elizabeth’s priority. What Philippa present was a modern interpretation and arguably including the romance. It also worth mention her first husband John Grey whom she married to for 6 years, so that would add more doubt to Elizabeth and Edward’s “”romance”” like how it was shown in The White Queen.
I’ve been watching “Two Sentence Horror Stories” on an off. No frock flick in this anthology yet, though one episode features a bunch of reenactors dressed in period/faux period clothing. A major theme of the episode is actual history versus sanitized versions.
I’m hopping around shows because nothing is really grabbing me these days. I think that has to do more with the state of my frazzled mind than what I’m watching. Here’s what I’ve watching. I indulged my love of James Purefoy by watching Pennyworth (he’s only in Season 2–but I recommend watching both seasons) and Hap and Leonard (the latter isn’t FrockFlick territory). I’m re-watching The Nevers and A Discovery of Witches. I tried Domina (boo! just boo!). And I’m watching Supergirl. The Arrowverse is sooo vast–I can’t keep up. FrockFlicks-wise, I’ll probably try The Luminaries and start all over with Grantchester.
You know what I REALLY want?? I want a good TV series adaptation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Excellent idea–a Poe series, I mean.
swoon James Purefoy, my favorite Beau Brummell. If you are at all interested in suspense/horror-themed shows, I highly recommend The Following. He’s brilliant in it, but it’s modern-not-historical, and I know that sort of dark subject matter is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Swoon James Purfoy. Period. End of sentence!
I watched Jungle Cruise the other day – I thought it was very funny and entertaining, but a bit meh costume-wise. Emily Blunt’s character does that thing where the feisty female character shocks the men by wearing pants, and while I could accept that while they were on the boat for practicality’s sake, the fact that they had her continue wearing pants when they returned to England annoyed me. But that aside, I enjoyed it! They kept a lot of the puns that the skippers use on the ride, which I always enjoy.
Thank you Frock Flick for your educational content. Currently watching (and mostly enjoying) Netflix Spanish series the Cook of Castamar and being really more sensitive of the good (I feel like the working class garb is really well done with lovely caps and trimmings – no hair pin shortages there!), the not so good and the really bad (in Spain charismatic character means bearded it seems ? That’s really grating).