Historical Dramas
Feb. 20th, 2013 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI have been enjoying the miniseries about the pre-Raphaelites, Desperate Romantics so much that I have been contemplating other historical topics that would make good movies/miniseries.
My first thought was the original Romantic poets, particularly the Byron-Shelley-Mary Shelley triptych. Fortunately people who actually make films thought of this one first. Unfortunately, one of these films is a horror movie (and bad, on top of that) and the other is a horrible movie. Not helpful, filmmakers! Just think how dramatic and amazing and beautiful it could be, like Bright Star except a million times more scandalous.
Apparently Shelley and Mary Shelley had an an open relationship, but only Shelley took advantage of it, and eventually he was like, “Mary, the fact that I’m the only one sleeping with other people makes me feel guilty. You should totally sleep with this friend of mine. The friend who is not Byron, because I amkeeping him for myself concerned you might fall in love with Byron, with his lustrous raven locks and brawny arms. Mmm. His arms look amazing when we going rowing together.”
Mary Shelley: “But I don’t want to sleep with anyone but you!”
Percy Shelley: “You want to be a good wife, don’t you? A good wife would commit adultery, Mary!”
Percy Shelley: was kind of a jerk.
There’s a miniseries just about Byron starring Jonny Lee Miller, though. That might be worth watching.
A sampling of other possibilities:
1. The World War I poets from Britain. I don’t think most of them met so you’d have to pick one (though this being fiction, we could totally change that...), and probably a biopic would be a more appropriate length than a miniseries for that. I’m gunning for Rupert Brooke, because I read a biography of him while I was in England, and oh man, the boy was a hot mess. Emphasis on hot. Have you seen photographs of this man?
Also he spent most of the prewar years struggling with his sexuality and having sex with everyone, like a guilt-ridden, poetry-writing Jack Harkness. Tell me that wouldn’t be amazing on the silver screen.
On a completely different note, I kind of want Lady Mary of Downton Abbey and Rupert Brooke to meet. Possibly with Matthew in tow? Rupert Brooke could flirt with them both! This was a tragical missed opportunity, Julian Fellowes!
2. The making of the Treaty of Versailles, because it would be so great watching the big three players bounce off each other. Lloyd George’s comment when someone asked how he’d done at the conference was, “Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon” - meaning of course Woodrow Wilson and Clemenceau - doesn’t that sound like an entertainingly terrible character dynamic? You have to be in this one for the trainwreck potential.
For extra fun, I think there should be a subplot about one of the smaller countries battling for recognition at the conference: maybe the Czechs? It would give the audience an underdog hero, so they’ll have someone to root for as well as the big three to facepalm about.
What else? What other awesome entertainment could we mine from history?
My first thought was the original Romantic poets, particularly the Byron-Shelley-Mary Shelley triptych. Fortunately people who actually make films thought of this one first. Unfortunately, one of these films is a horror movie (and bad, on top of that) and the other is a horrible movie. Not helpful, filmmakers! Just think how dramatic and amazing and beautiful it could be, like Bright Star except a million times more scandalous.
Apparently Shelley and Mary Shelley had an an open relationship, but only Shelley took advantage of it, and eventually he was like, “Mary, the fact that I’m the only one sleeping with other people makes me feel guilty. You should totally sleep with this friend of mine. The friend who is not Byron, because I am
Mary Shelley: “But I don’t want to sleep with anyone but you!”
Percy Shelley: “You want to be a good wife, don’t you? A good wife would commit adultery, Mary!”
Percy Shelley: was kind of a jerk.
There’s a miniseries just about Byron starring Jonny Lee Miller, though. That might be worth watching.
A sampling of other possibilities:
1. The World War I poets from Britain. I don’t think most of them met so you’d have to pick one (though this being fiction, we could totally change that...), and probably a biopic would be a more appropriate length than a miniseries for that. I’m gunning for Rupert Brooke, because I read a biography of him while I was in England, and oh man, the boy was a hot mess. Emphasis on hot. Have you seen photographs of this man?
Also he spent most of the prewar years struggling with his sexuality and having sex with everyone, like a guilt-ridden, poetry-writing Jack Harkness. Tell me that wouldn’t be amazing on the silver screen.
On a completely different note, I kind of want Lady Mary of Downton Abbey and Rupert Brooke to meet. Possibly with Matthew in tow? Rupert Brooke could flirt with them both! This was a tragical missed opportunity, Julian Fellowes!
2. The making of the Treaty of Versailles, because it would be so great watching the big three players bounce off each other. Lloyd George’s comment when someone asked how he’d done at the conference was, “Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon” - meaning of course Woodrow Wilson and Clemenceau - doesn’t that sound like an entertainingly terrible character dynamic? You have to be in this one for the trainwreck potential.
For extra fun, I think there should be a subplot about one of the smaller countries battling for recognition at the conference: maybe the Czechs? It would give the audience an underdog hero, so they’ll have someone to root for as well as the big three to facepalm about.
What else? What other awesome entertainment could we mine from history?
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Date: 2013-02-20 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-20 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-21 12:18 am (UTC)...I think I have one of my Yuletide fandoms.
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Date: 2013-02-21 12:31 am (UTC).....and now I'm just imaging him having sex with Jack Harkness. Jack was around sometime in WWI, surely.
I'll have to check out Desperate Romantics.
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Date: 2013-02-21 01:09 am (UTC)And you should check out Desperate Romantics! It is a pretty exciting series, and only six episodes long.
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Date: 2013-02-21 01:11 am (UTC)The last third is, unfortunately, all babies, but I think we could take some creative liberties there.
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Date: 2013-02-21 01:22 am (UTC)And that sounds like an awesome novel that would make an awesome show! Is there a good ending point before the babies? We could just stop the story a bit early with them riding into the sunset or what have you.
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Date: 2013-02-21 01:35 am (UTC)Son runs away and hides at the country house of a friend, and spends a lot of time sobbing into his sleeves. Daughter learns her brother has disappeared, and don's men's clothes to find her missing sibling. (Who is this handsome man we have not seen before?? say the court ladies who catch sight of her.) When she finds her brother, they end up switching back, so their genders once again match their assigned sexes at birth, with none the wiser.
Daughter (who is now Son) achieves high court rank. Son (who is now Daughter) eventually gives birth to the Emperor's heir, a great honor for a woman. It makes sense in the context of the society it was written in, and the narrative never shames or condemns either of the siblings, but it does make one wish for more. There's a lot of fun material that could be turned into TV drama.
Which is all to say that there's not really a good ending point, but you could take the end in a completely different direction with adoptions or something, the Emperor being sexually flexible - the possibilities are endless. :D