Period (Historic) Romance Films and TV
by rantzak | created - 23 Mar 2016 | updated - 15 Jan 2022 | PublicWell done period films or TV series.
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1. North & South (2004)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
North and South is a four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story of Margaret Hale, a middle-class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.
Stars: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinéad Cusack
Votes: 34,989
Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe), a young woman from southern England who has to move to the North after her father decides to leave the clergy. The family struggles to adjust itself to the industrial town's customs, especially after meeting the Thorntons, a proud family of cotton mill owners who seem to despise their social inferiors. The story explores the issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers clashes with her growing attraction to John Thornton (Richard Armitage).
2. Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–2011)
TV-PG | 53 min | Drama, Romance
An adaptation of Flora Thompson's autobiographical novel "Lark Rise To Candleford", set in 19 century Oxfordshire, in which a young girl moves to the local market town to begin an apprenticeship as a postmistress.
Stars: Olivia Hallinan, Sarah Lancashire, Julia Sawalha, Fergus Drysdale
Votes: 8,414
The series is set in the small Oxfordshire hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town of Candleford towards the end of the 19th century. The story is seen through the eyes of a teenage girl, Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan), as she leaves Lark Rise to start a new life under the wing of her mother's cousin, the independent and effervescent Dorcas Lane (Julia Sawalha), who is Post Mistress at the local Post Office in Candleford. Through these two characters, viewers experience the force of friendship as Laura and Dorcas see each other through the best and worst of times.
3. Cranford (2007–2009)
TV-PG | 469 min | Drama
In the 1840s, Cranford is ruled by the ladies. They adore good gossip, and romance and change is in the air, as the unwelcome grasp of the Industrial Revolution rapidly approaches their beloved rural market-town.
Stars: Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Deborah Findlay
Votes: 10,637
The story focuses primarily on the town's single and widowed middle class female inhabitants who are comfortable with their traditional way of life and place great store in propriety and maintaining an appearance of gentility.
4.
Cranford (2007–2009)
Episode:
Return to Cranford: Part One - August 1844
(2009)
TV-14 | 89 min | Drama
It's August 1844 and Miss Matty knows only too well that faces will always come and go in Cranford, but for now she is happy that her dear brother, Peter is home from India and that Martha,... See full summary »
Director: Simon Curtis | Stars: Judi Dench, Claudie Blakley, Julia McKenzie, Alex Jennings
Votes: 423
Sequel to Cranford.
5. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
TV-PG | 55 min | Drama, Romance
While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.
Stars: Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Susannah Harker, Julia Sawalha
Votes: 92,371
Jane Austen's masterpiece.
6. Persuasion (2007 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 93 min | Action, Drama, Family
Anne was in love with Frederick, who was rejected by her snobby parents 8 years ago. They've now hit hard times and rent out their mansion to his brother-in-law. He returns a Royal Navy captain. Will he remember Anne?
Director: Adrian Shergold | Stars: Sally Hawkins, Alice Krige, Anthony Head, Julia Davis
Votes: 16,513
Another of Austen's works.
7. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
PG | 136 min | Drama, Romance
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 125,809 | Gross: $43.18M
Another of Austen's works.
8. Emma (2009)
TV-PG | 62 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy young woman living in the early 19th century, whose misplaced confidence in her matchmaking abilities occasions several romantic misadventures, which leads her into deeper meanings of love and life
Stars: Romola Garai, Michael Gambon, Jonny Lee Miller, Jodhi May
Votes: 18,058
Another of Austen's works. Basically, everything by Jane Austen is a favorite of mine.
9. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 142 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Paris, 1792: After France becomes a republic, aristocrats are guillotined. The English Sir Percy tries to save as many as he can as The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguises.
Director: Clive Donner | Stars: Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, Ian McKellen, James Villiers
Votes: 5,159
One of my favorite movies and books, this is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The feel of this film is different from the one's above with a mood of secrecy and thrilling adventure.
10. Jane Eyre (1983)
TV-PG | 28 min | Drama, Romance
A young governess falls in love with her mysterious employer, but a terrible secret puts their happiness at risk.
Stars: Zelah Clarke, Timothy Dalton, Carol Gillies, James Marcus
Votes: 3,688
A classic. This story revolves around a young orphan girl.
11. Christy (1994–1995)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Family, History
Christy tells the story of an idealistic nineteen year old who leaves the comforts of her city home to teach school in the impoverished Appalachian community of Cutter Gap, Tennessee in 1912.
Stars: Kellie Martin, Stewart Finlay-McLennan, Tyne Daly, Randall Batinkoff
Votes: 1,400
American period drama series which aired on CBS. Christy Huddleston, a new teacher arriving to the fictional Appalachian village of Cutter Gap, Tennessee, in 1912. The villagers have old-fashioned ways. For example, they maintain rules and vengeances similar to the Highland clans of old Scotland. They also have a strong belief in folk medicine. At the same time many of their ways are portrayed in an idealized fashion as well.
12. Downton Abbey (2010–2015)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
A chronicle of the lives of the British aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early twentieth century.
Stars: Hugh Bonneville, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Brendan Coyle
Votes: 225,057
The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1925, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era—with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
13. Little Women (1949)
Approved | 122 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor
Votes: 8,237 | Gross: $7.47M
In the small town of Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, the March sisters — Meg (Janet Leigh), Jo (June Allyson), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor), and Beth (Margaret O'Brien) — live with their mother in a state of genteel poverty, their father having lost the family's fortune to an unscrupulous businessman several years earlier.
14. Anne of Green Gables (1985)
TV-G | 100 min | Drama, Family
An orphan girl, sent to an elderly brother and sister by mistake, charms her new home and community with her fiery spirit and imagination.
Stars: Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, Patricia Hamilton
Votes: 22,669
Canadian television mini-series drama film based on the novel of the same name by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery
15. Anne of Avonlea (1987)
TV-G | 58 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Anne Shirley accepts a teaching position at a girls boarding school in a town dominated by a rich and belligerant family determined to make her life miserable.
Stars: Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Marilyn Lightstone, Schuyler Grant
Votes: 10,197
It is a sequel to the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries.
16. The Secret Garden (1993)
G | 101 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A young, recently-orphaned girl is sent to England after living in India all of her life. Once there, she begins to explore her new, seemingly-isolated surroundings, and its secrets.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Kate Maberly, Maggie Smith, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott
Votes: 44,503 | Gross: $31.18M
Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly, and unloved 10-year-old girl born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents. Eventually her parents die, leaving Mary in the care of Archibald Craven, an uncle she has never met, at his home called Misselthwaite Manor. At first, Mary is her usual self, sour and rude, disliking her uncle's large house, the people within it, and, most of all, the vast stretch of moor, which seems scrubby and grey after the winter. She is told that she must stay confined to her two rooms and keep herself amused without much attention. Martha Sowerby, a good-natured maid, tells Mary a story of the late Mrs. Craven and how she would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses.
17. Bleak House (2005)
TV-PG | 30 min | Crime, Drama
A suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.
Stars: Anna Maxwell Martin, Carey Mulligan, Denis Lawson, Gillian Anderson
Votes: 10,637
The longstanding estate battle of Jarndyce v Jarndyce hangs over the heads of many conflicting heirs, confused by multiple wills. Possible beneficiary John Jarndyce of Bleak House welcomes orphaned cousins Ada Clare and Richard Carstone — also potential heirs — as his wards.
18. An Ideal Husband (I) (1999)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
London 1895: Cabinet minister, Sir Chiltern, and bachelor, Lord Goring, are victims of scheming women.
Director: Oliver Parker | Stars: Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, Peter Vaughan, Minnie Driver
Votes: 16,726 | Gross: $18.54M
Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs. Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old and the plot to help his friend has unintended consequences.
19. The Inheritance (1997 TV Movie)
95 min | Drama, Romance
A 19th-century woman, companion to a blue-blooded New England girl, falls for an aristocrat.
Director: Bobby Roth | Stars: Cari Shayne, Brigitta Dau, Paul Anthony Stewart, Brigid Brannagh
Votes: 1,645
Those who like period pieces will very much enjoy this made for television movie, which is loosely based upon Louisa May Alcott's novella of the same name.
20. Middlemarch (1994)
54 min | Drama, Romance
Middlemarch is a story of provincial life on the brink of momentous change and a deeply moving saga about a group of people striving to give meaning and value to their lives during the Industrial Revolution.
Stars: Douglas Hodge, Juliet Aubrey, Trevyn McDowell, Jonathan Firth
Votes: 2,757
In this version of the novel, Dorothea Brooke (Juliet Aubrey) attempts to satisfy her underdeveloped intellect through marriage to the Reverend Edward Casaubon (Patrick Malahide), a man twice her age. The marriage proves unsatisfying and ends with Casaubon's unexpected death. Dorothea eventually meets Will Ladislaw (Rufus Sewell), an event which leads to further complications.
21. Love Comes Softly (2003 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 88 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A young woman on her way to a new life in the 1800's suddenly finds herself a widow. Now she must live with a recently widowed young man and his daughter. Can any of them find love again?
Director: Michael Landon Jr. | Stars: Katherine Heigl, Dale Midkiff, Corbin Bernsen, Skye McCole Bartusiak
Votes: 6,983
Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) has just moved out to the West with her husband Aaron Claridge (Oliver Macready), who dies in a riding accident shortly after. Expecting her late husband's baby, Marty has nowhere to go and needs a place to stay through the winter. Desperate, she accepts the proposal offered by widower (Dale Midkiff) Clark.
22. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War
A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 334,479 | Gross: $198.68M
On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes—whom she secretly loves—is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks.
23. A Good Woman (2004)
PG | 93 min | Drama, Comedy, Romance
A 1930s American socialite creates a scandal in the expatriate high society of the Amalfi Coast of Italy when she forms a secretive relationship with a wealthy American unbeknownst to his young wife.
Director: Mike Barker | Stars: Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Milena Vukotic
Votes: 14,109 | Gross: $0.22M
Set in 1930, the film opens in New York City, where femme fatale Mrs. Erlynne finds that she is no longer welcomed by either the high-ranking men she has seduced or the society wives she has betrayed.
24. Wives and Daughters (1999)
TV-PG | 75 min | Drama
The daughter of a country doctor copes with an unwanted stepmother, an impetuous stepsister, burdensome secrets, the town gossips, and the tug on her own heartstrings for a man who thinks of her only as a friend.
Stars: Francesca Annis, Justine Waddell, Bill Paterson, Keeley Hawes
Votes: 7,329
It focuses on Molly Gibson (Justine Waddell), the daughter of the town doctor, and the changes that occur in her life after her widowed father chooses to remarry.
25. The Way We Live Now (2001)
TV-14 | 75 min | Drama, Romance
Augustus Melmotte is a European-born city financier whose background is as mysterious as his business. Only weeks after his arrival in London, he announced a new venture and promises instant fortune.
Stars: David Suchet, Matthew Macfadyen, Cillian Murphy, Paloma Baeza
Votes: 3,321
Augustus Melmotte is a foreign financier with a mysterious past. When he and his family move to London, the city's upper crust begins buzzing with rumours about him and a host of characters find their lives changed because of him.
26. Under the Greenwood Tree (2005 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 93 min | Drama, Romance
In this lighthearted romance from Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy, the beautiful new village school teacher is pursued by three suitors: a working-class man, a landowner, and the vicar.
Director: Nicholas Laughland | Stars: Keeley Hawes, James Murray, Terry Mortimer, Richard Leaf
Votes: 2,989
The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day.
27. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,281,369 | Gross: $659.33M
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg.[Note 1] Rose Dawson Calvert, the woman in the drawing, is brought aboard Keldysh and tells Lovett of her experiences aboard Titanic.
28. Elizabeth (1998)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox
Votes: 105,166 | Gross: $30.08M
In 1558, Queen Mary (Kathy Burke), the Catholic daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, dies of a cancerous tumour in her uterus. Mary's Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), whom Henry fathered with Anne Boleyn, becomes Queen of England.
29. The Young Victoria (2009)
PG | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson
Votes: 66,423 | Gross: $11.00M
Princess Victoria of Kent is the heiress presumptive to the throne during the last years of the reign of her uncle King William IV and is subject to a political tug of war for influence over her. On the one side is her mother, the Duchess of Kent, along with the comptroller of the Duchess's household, Sir John Conroy, who tries to force Victoria to sign papers declaring a regency and giving him and her mother power.
30. The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 98 min | Drama
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Director: Brent Shields | Stars: Keri Russell, Skeet Ulrich, Mare Winningham, Tania Gunadi
Votes: 6,089
Olivia Dunne (Keri Russell) is a young woman of Denver who has become pregnant by a naval flight instructor on furlough during the war. Embarrassed by his daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy, her father decides to deal with the issue by quietly arranging her to marry.
31. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996)
53 min | Drama
An adaptation of Anne Bronte's novel; a young widow takes her son and moves to Yorkshire.
Stars: Toby Stephens, Tara Fitzgerald, Rupert Graves, Sarah Badel
Votes: 3,012
A mysterious young woman arrives at Wildfell Hall, an old mansion of Elizabethan era with a young son. She determines to lead an independent existence, but her new neighbours don't want to let her alone. Only one of them, a young farmer, Gilbert Markham, succeeded in revealing her secrets.
32. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
The story of Tess Durbeyfield, a low-born country girl whose family find they have noble connections.
Stars: Gemma Arterton, Eddie Redmayne, Ruth Jones, Hans Matheson
Votes: 6,622
Tess is the innocent but spirited protagonist of the story and the eldest daughter of a poor, rural Victorian family. She is sensitive, loyal and kind and tries to do the best for her loved ones. A "fine and handsome girl", Tess easily attracts the attention of admirers but her life is tragically undone by their misdeeds and misjudgements.
33. Lady Jane (1986)
PG-13 | 136 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for only nine days.
Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Cary Elwes, John Wood, Michael Hordern
Votes: 7,087 | Gross: $0.28M
The death of King Henry VIII of England throws his kingdom into chaos as his heir, Edward VI, is both under-age and in poor health. Anticipating the young king's imminent death from consumption and anxious to keep England true to the Reformation by keeping the Catholic Mary from the throne, John Dudley, Lord President of the Council and second only to the king in power, hatches a plan to marry his son, Lord Guildford, to Lady Jane Grey, and have the royal physician keep the young king Edward VI alive—albeit in excruciating pain—long enough to get him to name Jane his heir.
34. The Courage to Love (2000 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, History, Romance
In 19th century New Orleans creole Henriette must choose between love and devotion to the church. Neither choice is going to be easy, as there is great opposition to her ideas of breaking traditions.
Director: Kari Skogland | Stars: Vanessa Williams, Gil Bellows, Karen Williams, Lisa Bronwyn Moore
Votes: 531
Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, was born in 1813 into one of New Orleans' most prominent families. Her family assumed she would follow her mother and sister's path and become a mistress for a wealthy white man. However, Henriette had different plans for her life.
35. A Hazard of Hearts (1987 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
When compulsive gambler Sir Giles Staverley (Christopher Plummer) has lost his estate and all of his money playing dice, he realizes that he only has one thing left of value: his daughter ... See full summary »
Director: John Hough | Stars: Diana Rigg, Edward Fox, Helena Bonham Carter, Fiona Fullerton
Votes: 1,353
Compulsive gambler, Sir Giles Staverley, is tricked into gambling away his home by his old adversary Lord Harry Wrotham. As Staverley is distraught and desperate, Wrotham gives him one last chance - he will gamble everything Staverley has lost against Staverley's daughter's hand in marriage and her trust fund of 80,000 guineas. Staverley agrees and loses once again, but unable to face his daughter, Serena, he kills himself. Lord Justin Vulcan, a notoriously cool, clear-headed gambler, challenges Wrotham for the house and the girl and, much to Wrotham's disgust, wins. Justin now finds himself in possession of the house and Serena, but has no idea of what to do with them.
36. The Buccaneers (1995)
TV-14 | 48 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Four American girls go to England to find husbands.
Stars: Carla Gugino, Alison Elliott, Mira Sorvino, Rya Kihlstedt
Votes: 2,617
The story revolves around five wealthy and ambitious American girls, their guardians and the titled, landed but impoverished Englishmen who marry them as the girls participate in the London Season. The plot follows Nan and her marriage to the Duke of Tintagel.
37. A Room with a View (1985)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands
Votes: 47,896 | Gross: $20.97M
Miss Lucy Honeychurch is from an English village in Surrey and is on holiday in Italy with her much older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett.
38. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1890s London, two friends use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") for their on-the-sly activities. Hilarity ensues.
Director: Oliver Parker | Stars: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon
Votes: 24,746 | Gross: $8.38M
It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personæ to escape burdensome social obligations.
39. Death Comes to Pemberley (2013)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Elizabeth and Darcy, now six years married, are preparing for their annual ball when festivities are brought to an abrupt halt. An adaptation of PD James's homage to Pride and Prejudice.
Stars: Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Goode, Trevor Eve
Votes: 8,468
It is October, 1803, six years after the events in Pride and Prejudice which resulted in the marriage of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet. One evening, on their way to Pemberley for a ball, an argument breaks out between George Wickham and Captain Denny in the carriage.
40. 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: 33,148 | Gross: $10.73M
After the death of Dido's mother, Captain Lindsay takes Dido from the slums of the West Indies in 1765 and entrusts her to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, and his wife, Elizabeth, who live at Kenwood House.
41. Poldark (2015–2019)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
Ross Poldark returns home after the American Revolutionary War and rebuilds his life with a new business venture, making new enemies and finding a new love where he least expects it.
Stars: Aidan Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson, Jack Farthing, Beatie Edney
Votes: 36,138
In the late 18th century, Ross Poldark returns to his Cornish tin mines after spending three years in the army to avoid charges of smuggling, leaving behind his sweetheart, Elizabeth. On his return, having fought in the American War of Independence, he finds his father dead, his estate in ruins, and Elizabeth engaged to his cousin Francis. He rescues a young woman, Demelza, from a beating, and takes her on as a kitchen maid and attempts to gain control of the mines sought after by a rival, the greedy and arrogant George Warleggan.
42. 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: 95,217 | Gross: $40.16M
New Zealand drama film about a mute piano player and her daughter. Set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater town on the west coast of New Zealand, it revolves around the piano player's passion for playing the piano and her efforts to regain her piano after it is sold.
43. The Remains of the Day (1993)
PG | 134 min | Drama, Romance
A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, John Haycraft, Christopher Reeve
Votes: 84,510 | Gross: $22.95M
In 1950s post-war Britain, Mr. Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, receives a letter from Miss Kenton, a recently divorced former co-worker employed as the housekeeper some twenty years earlier. Lord Darlington has died a broken man, his reputation destroyed after he had been denounced as a Nazi-sympathiser in the Daily Mail, and his stately country manor has been sold to a retired American Congressman, Mr. Lewis.
44. Howards End (1992)
PG | 142 min | Drama, Romance
Set in the early 20th century, class distinctions and troubled relations affect the relationship between two families and the ownership of a cherished British estate known as Howards End.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter
Votes: 35,884 | Gross: $25.97M
The story takes place in Edwardian England and concerns three families who represent three social classes: the Wilcoxes are wealthy capitalists, the class that is displacing the aristocracy; the Schlegel sisters standing for the enlightened bourgeoisie; and the Basts, a young couple down on their luck, who may be traced to the lower middle class. (Forster is clear that the novel is "not concerned with the very poor".) The film asks the question "Who will inherit England?" and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person.
45. Run the Wild Fields (2000 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
The Story of a North Carolina woman and her daughter who take in a mysterious drifter to work their farm while the woman's husband is missing in action during WWII.
Director: Paul A. Kaufman | Stars: Joanne Whalley, Sean Patrick Flanery, Cotter Smith, Alexa PenaVega
Votes: 739
46. Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991 TV Movie)
G | 98 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A single New England woman responds to an advertisement by a Midwestern widower in which he asks for a bride to help him raise his two children.
Director: Glenn Jordan | Stars: Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Lexi Randall, Malgorzata Zajaczkowska
Votes: 2,379
47. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.
Director: Bharat Nalluri | Stars: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciarán Hinds, David Alexander
Votes: 29,744 | Gross: $12.29M
48. 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: 246,271 | Gross: $108.10M
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