Chimes at Midnight
In the early 1400s, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) is annoyed with his son (Keith Baxter) who spends most of his time in the company of a rowdy, lying knight…
Ivanhoe
In the late 1100s, the disowned son (Anthony Andrews) of a Saxon nobleman (Michael Hordern) returns from the Crusades and becomes involved in the struggle between Saxons and Normans. The…
The Green Knight: A Christmas Reckoning
Dev Patel. Photo: A24 How do you like your knights, dames and duels? Ridiculous and funny à la Monty Python, or anachronistically tongue-in-cheek in the vein of A Knight's Tale…
Flesh+Blood
In 1501, the daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) of a nobleman ends up with a rowdy group of mercenaries, led by Martin (Rutger Hauer), whom she tries to manipulate. Paul Verhoeven’s…
Henry V: An Evening at the Globe
Laurence Olivier. Photo: United Artists In Donald Spoto’s 1991 biography on Laurence Olivier, the actor is described as having a somewhat disastrous turn as a soldier during World War II.…
Andrei Rublev: Before the Tsars
Photo: Mosfilm Andrei Tarkovsky’s wildly ambitious second film was shown in a cinema in 1966. The audience seemed to like it, but the Soviet censors refused to approve the epic…
Passion of Joan of Arc: Saint on Trial
Renée Jeanne Falconetti. Photo: Gaumont After making the film Master of the House in 1925, the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer spent time in France and learned that he was…
The Knight Before Christmas
In the 1300s, a British knight (Josh Whitehouse) is magically transported to 2019 and an American small town where a teacher (Vanessa Hudgens) needs to learn that true love exists.…
Braveheart: Creating a New Wallace
Mel Gibson. Photo: Paramount As the story goes, American writer Randall Wallace made a trip to Scotland and came upon a statue at the entrance of Edinburgh Castle. Since the…
Becket: The Bishop Who Found God
Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. Photo: Paramount When I told a friend recently that I had just seen Becket and that Richard Burton plays the Archbishop of Canterbury, he quickly…