The Past's Past
Historical films, depicting events prior October 1888 when it first became possible to film current events, and produced before June 1985 when Dire Strait's Money For Nothing video demonstrated full-CGI animation thus signaling the end of the practical effects era. Intended as a visual showcase of how bygone times were depicted on film during the age of physical sets and costumes. Not limited to nonfiction but explicit fantasy is excluded.
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- 17 titles
- DirectorsMervyn LeRoyAnthony MannStarsRobert TaylorDeborah KerrLeo GennAfter fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJeanne MoreauMargaret RutherfordWhen King Henry IV ascends to the throne, his heir, the Prince of Wales, is befriended by Sir John Falstaff, an old, overweight, fun-loving habitual liar. Through Falstaff's eyes we see the reign of King Henry IV and the rise of Henry V.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsEnrique IrazoquiMargherita CarusoSusanna PasoliniThe life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Film shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.
- DirectorGiovanni PastroneStarsItalia Almirante-ManziniLidia QuarantaBartolomeo PaganoCabiria is a Roman child when her home is destroyed by a volcano. Sold in Carthage to be sacrificed in a temple, she is saved by Fulvio, a Roman spy. But danger lurks, and hatred between Rome and Carthage can only lead to war.
- DirectorMichael ElliottStarsColin BlakelyLeo McKernRobert LindsayAging King Lear invites disaster when he abdicates to his two disloyal and obsequious daughters while rejecting the one who truly loves him.
- DirectorsGuy HamiltonAlexander MackendrickStarsBurt LancasterKirk DouglasLaurence OlivierThe black sheep of a family and the local minister discover their true vocations during the Revolutionary War.
- DirectorLaurence OlivierStarsLaurence OlivierCedric HardwickeNicholas HannenA tale of the wicked deformed King and his conquests, both on the battlefield and in the boudoir.
- DirectorEnrico GuazzoniStarsAmleto NovelliGustavo SerenaCarlo CattaneoAn epic Italian film, "Quo Vadis" influenced many of the later movies.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshFour historical tales depict the ongoing human struggle against prejudice and inhumanity.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDouglas FairbanksWallace BeerySam De GrasseA nobleman becomes the vigilante Robin Hood who protects the oppressed English people from the tyrannical Prince John.
- DirectorChester WitheyStarsWallace BeeryCharles K. GerrardKathleen CliffordAdventures of King Richard when he travels with Queen Berangaria, the knights and ladies of his court, and his army of crusaders to Palestine to fight Sultan Saladin and the Saracen hordes for possession of the Holy Land.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsTheodore RobertsCharles de RochefortEstelle TaylorAfter hearing the story of Moses, the sons of a devout Christian mother go their own ways, and the atheist brother's breaking of the Ten Commandments leads to tragedy.
- DirectorManfred NoaStarsEdy DarcleaVladimir GajdarovAlbert SteinrückHelena is a 1924 German silent drama film directed by Manfred Noa and starring Edy Darclea, Vladimir Gajdarov and Albert Steinrück.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsGibson GowlandZasu PittsJean HersholtThe sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
- DirectorJames CruzeStarsCharles FarrellEsther RalstonWallace BeeryAn American fighting ship battles Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean in the 18th century.
