Lesbian period dramas have lately been a potent subgenre combining real queer representation with historical settings. Offering viewers both a look into the past and a contemplation on modern LGBTQ+ issues, these stories examine forbidden love, social limitations, and personal emancipation throughout many time periods. From lavish costume dramas set in royal courts to brutal tales of survival on the American frontier, these stories expose how women have sought means to show their love for each other over history, frequently at tremendous personal expense.
Showcasing stories spanning the 18th century to the mid-20th century, each presenting unique viewpoints on queer female lives across time, this thorough guide offers the most interesting lesbian period plays available on film and television.
In This Article
Top 10 Lesbian Period Drama TV Series
A League of Their Own
Premiered: 2022
Country: United States
Episodes: 1 season, 8 episodes
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: Drawing on the 1992 movie, the show chronicles the development of a women’s professional baseball team during World War II. The program looks at the difficulties these women had both on and off the field as they followed their love of baseball at a period when women were supposed to revert to conventional roles.
Review: The whole run looks at self-discovery from several angles. One element is the outside quest of one’s passions: Maxine encounters familial resistance while Carson battles the limitations of her marriage. Both ladies continue to pursue their goals regardless of whether or not others help them to grasp them.
From sexual orientation (Carson is like a lost lamb entering an utterly foreign environment, yet she admits her inner wants notwithstanding they are seen as taboo) to questioning society laws, the second element is internal questioning. These women flame brilliantly under these difficult and unfair circumstances, supporting one another all along.
Tears-jerking, the conclusion masterfully shows this camaraderie when the squad supports their injured opponent in reaching triumph. The authors caught it exactly: women have a strong bond based on common experiences that lets them provide a helping hand without clear justification.
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The Nevers
Premiered: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Episodes: 1 season, 12 episodes (partially released)
Where to Watch: HBO, MAX
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐ 🤔 Mixed reviews
Synopsis: Set in Victoria’s last years of rule, London is tormented by the “Touched,” mostly women with either charming or unsettling sudden ability. Among them are the enigmatic, quiet widow Amalia True and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair, who advocate this new underclass and fight different groups to carve out a place for those who have none in traditional history.
Review: One could best define “The Nevers” as a light-hearted comedy with spooky components! Amalia and Penance have a lovely relationship; I would want to see their genesis story since their interactions are amazing to behold. For Amalia, it transcends simple friendship rather obviously.
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Warrior Nun
Premiered: 2020
Country: Spain/United States
Episodes: 2 seasons, 18 episodes total
Where to Watch: Netflix
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Inspired by a comic novel, “Warrior Nun” centres on a 19-year-old awakening in a mortuary with a sacred relic embedded in her back. She finds she is now a member of an old order fighting demons on Earth, while strong forces representing heaven and hell hunt and subjugate her.
Review: This series shines as a comic adaptation falling into the action/fantasy genre. The first season stays away from producing unpleasant “holier-than-thou” characters; the real villain surprises everyone. Beyond religious power conflicts, women’s relationships grow elegantly; I guess the show might be more complex than its inspiration.
In the first season, the way the human villain Julian is adapted into the female character Julia is just superb.
Though many comic adaptations bore me, this one kept me viewing ten episodes in one sitting. The director’s tempo is superb; these 10 episodes just highlight the ascent of the hero; the last episode marks only the beginning.
Avatrice is exquisitely written since it was deliberate rather than a side effect. The showrunners really are rather remarkable. Alba and Kristina captivate me. The way Ava and Beatrice develop from Season 1 is quite lovely. Though Ava saw her actual beauty, Beatrice was guarded and terrified to love or even accept who she is. Having been deprived of love and affection, Ava craved company, and Beatrice stayed at her side all through—never leaving her.
The Haunting of Bly Manor
Premiered: 2020
Country: United States/United Kingdom
Episodes: Limited series, 9 episodes
Where to Watch: Netflix
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: After the sad death of an au pair, Henry Wingrave employs a young American nanny to look after his orphaned niece and nephew who live at Bly Manor with Owen, groundskeeper Jamie, and housekeeper Mrs. Grose. Set in 1980s England But all is not as it seems at the manor; decades of sinister gothic romance hold dark secrets of love and grief just waiting to be discovered.
Review: About them, there is something quite unique. An on-screen romance has never had this impact on me in my life; I think this is because I feel rightly portrayed on TV for the first time ever. This shows two women loving each other free from fetishising or stereotyping. Those who assert LGBTQ+ people are over-represented in TV series lack knowledge of the extremely rare shows that really matter, representations that make a difference or are accurate. I therefore still grieve about Jamie Taylor and Dani Clayton even after a month.
Ratched
Premiered: 2020
Country: United States
Episodes: 1 season, 8 episodes
Where to Watch: Netflix
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: The narrative opens in a Northern California psychiatric institution where Mildred (Sarah Paulson) is a new nurse. Much to the dismay of head nurse Betsy Bucket (Judy Davis), who has worked tirelessly at the hospital her entire life, the apparently inexperienced but highly competent woman rapidly gains the confidence of Dr. Hannover (Jon Jon Briones). Mildred has actually crept into the hospital with a definite goal in mind: her foster brother Edmund (Finn Wittrock) is now housed in this psychiatric hospital undergoing mental examination after being arrested for killing many priests. Edmund will be faced with the death sentence should the hospital find him mentally competent; Mildred is resolved to stop this.
Review: First-rate cinematography, direction, art design, and pace combine to create exactly appropriate mood and soundtrack. The plot is simple: a sly and deceptive protagonist, a nurse, visits a psychiatric hospital seeking to save her killer brother. Following several seasons of American Horror Story, the filmmaker manages this thriller genre with almost perfect vintage shell, which is both a strength and a major disadvantage: the style and performances feel familiar, lacking originality and greatly reminiscent of AHS. Especially valued was the protagonist’s early on flashes of tenderness despite her dark and sophisticated demeanour. Her sexual awakening is also shockingly fresh, and the deft use of red and green filters that change with characters’ psychological moods is masterfully done.
Gentleman Jack
Premiered: 2019
Country: United Kingdom
Episodes: 2 seasons, 16 episodes total
Where to Watch: HBO, BBC iPlayer, MAX
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: Inspired by the real-life Anne Lister, a wealthy landowner popularly known as “Gentleman Jack,” Halifax in 1832 She earned the moniker “The first modern lesbian,” was a diarist, traveler, and lived freely as a lesbian. The show shows her interactions with family, servants, renters, business rivals, and her affair with Ann Walker.
Review: The narrative of Lister is quite gripping. Of course, one clear reason is because it is grounded on actual events. Who wouldn’t be moved seeing someone live so heroically two hundred years ago, defying social pressures and limits and following her own aspirations? At least, Lister really touched me profoundly.
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Dickinson
Premiered: 2019
Country: United States
Episodes: 3 seasons, 30 episodes total
Where to Watch: Apple TV+
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: She stars Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson, one of the first modernist poets of the 20th century. Set in Emily Dickinson’s era, the series follows the Dickinson family and Emily’s path to produce poetry, written by Alena Smith under direction of David Gordon Green. The programme also sees Dickinson’s personal development.
Review: Featuring awakening female consciousness, the look of Wiz Khalifa, pumpkin carriage imagery, and purposefully hazy time settings—all freely swinging between “period comedy, time-travel drama, and biographical series”—this is an absolutely cool approach. Though Emily is gone, her poetry and spirit explode from the pages, transcending time and place, therefore sharing the same purpose as many writers who adapt classical works into modern settings. They inspire everyone to find themselves, combat injustice, and speak up in the world even hundreds of years later. Hailee is really good, enhancing the persona beyond conventional expectations.
Black Sails
Premiered: 2014
Country: United States/South Africa
Episodes: 4 seasons, 38 episodes total
Where to Watch: Starz, Hulu
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: Set 20 years before “Treasure Island,” the show is a prequel. Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his ship “Walrus” are not yet famous. The Cape Town-filmed serial follows Flint, a literary pirate and Golden Age of Piracy icon. He and others found the “Pirate Paradise,” an anarchist society on New Providence Island, fighting enemies to survive. Pirates, prostitutes, bandits, thieves, and treasure hunters flock to this criminal sanctuary. Eleanor, played by Hannah New, is a gorgeous, courageous, and confident bar owner with legal experience. She helps poor pirates fence their wares and hosts balls for powerful people.
Review: I thought their arrangement of Max’s story arc was excellent. She decided against being another Eleanor since, to her, power, prestige, and riches were not everything. Recall seeing her on the floor at the very start of the performance, asking Eleanor to pick her? She momentarily almost became into the person who had offended her the most. She overcame, though, facing what was really most crucial to her. Though I had hoped for this result, I never completely believed Max’s motivations; it’s challenging with someone so very smart.
Fingersmith
Premiered: 2005
Country: United Kingdom
Episodes: Miniseries, 3 episodes
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime (rental), occasionally on BBC streaming
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: modified from the same-named Sarah Waters’ book. Living on a huge manor on London’s outskirts, Mr. Lilly and his niece Maud (Elaine Cassidy) The restless Mr. Lilly orders Maud to spend her days reading his book collection and organising. Living a miserable existence, the poor girl has never left the estate. Rivers (Rupert Evans), a stranger who comes to teach Maud painting, gives her withering soul fresh life one day. She has no idea Rivers is a burglar who hatched a marriage fraud after learning about Maud’s £40,000 dowry. Rivers hires Sue (Sally Hawkins), from his thieving ring, to be Maud’s personal maid, therefore guaranteeing success. Rivers never expects Maud and Sue to grow sincere love as the well planned is executed. Watching Maud about to be transferred to an asylum makes Sue more and more guilty and devastated. But soon things take an unexpected turn; it seems that nothing is as straightforward as Sue anticipated, and everyone is awaiting a major conspiracy fifteen years ago with an amazing truth ready to surface.
Review: Sarah Waters placed this book in Victorian England. She wrote the book including what she liked about that age. Scholarly writer Waters studied for a doctorate degree, and her intellectual background guarantees exacting attention to every book she produces. In “Fingersmith,” she offers thorough and real depictions of Victorian-era underground publication and distribution of erotic literature, the dismal London slums, scenes from insane asylums – padded walls, lesbian wardens, various punishments, and the popular scheme among gentlemen to commit their wives to asylums to obtain their property. Various “Mrs. So-and-so,” who lacked means of escape as they were deprived of all belongings, even clothing to hide herself, crowded the asylums. These specifics derived from Waters’ meticulous historical investigation.
Research by Sarah Waters concentrated on lesbian literature starting in the late 19th century. She says that whereas lesbian writers traced their roots to Sappho, masculine gay writers such as John Addington Symonds found their background in ancient Greek men. Waters used a creative technique, rearranging historical documents from the 19th century to show lesbian living situations from several usual scenes and from a new angle. One of the TV series’ pivotal scenes has Maud totally exposed before Susan, greatly igniting their passion. Maud is wearing a corset. Writers of the 19th century admired the “corset” motif.
Pickpocket was referred to in 19th-century as “fingersmith”. It details someone very gifted in any ability using fingers. “Wordsmith” is a master of words, while “fingersmith” most usually refers to a really talented burglar who went unpackled. Miss Maud protects her fingertips with gloves in the BBC series; her delicate fingers are especially for transcribing sensual literature, but Susan’s fingers are for theft. They are both, in a sense “fingersmiths.”
The TV show presents two female stars that fit really nicely: Maud quiet, Susan crazy. But as the story unfolds, Maud’s fiery nature slowly surfaces, erasing the distinction between who the “male” and “female” in their relationship represents. Maud stands in a beam of light reading Susan’s created recommendation letter in a rather harsh voice when Susan and Maud first meet. I couldn’t help but believe that Maud was really as innocent as a dove at that instant while knowing the plot twist. Every character has a different attitude. Although Sarah Waters herself praises Zadie Smith, reporters have noted that she shines at penning Dickensian novels. I once more found the beauty of the English countryside in this film. The adjective “idyllic” is rather strong; practically all the reason I enjoy British films.
Tipping the Velvet
Premiered: 2002
Country: United Kingdom
Episodes: Miniseries, 3 episodes
Where to Watch: BritBox, occasionally on BBC streaming
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Inspired by Sarah Waters’ same-titled book, a softly presented dewy rose transforms the life of 18-year-old small-town girl Nan (Rachael Stirling) permanently. Nan encounters actress performing in male drag, Kitty (Keeley Hawes), while viewing a variety show. Deeply moved by Kitty’s superb performance, the lucky Nan meets her idol and gladly starts following her. Nan follows without doubt when Kitty chooses to go for more possibilities in London. Her acting ability surprises everyone, and the inexperienced combination turns out to be the most visually striking on stage. Their connection has changed by now to be a romance, and Kitty’s lifetime dedication has made Nan totally believe in their love. But emotions change fast; Kitty turns on Nan to wed a man. Unable to bear this blow, Nan runs and starts to lose herself in the black metropolis.
Review: Simply said, same-sex love is more poignant as it doesn’t start haphazardly. They stray from their usual paths only because they have discovered true love. This is essentially different from same-sex partnerships motivated by curiosity.
Top 10 Highly-Acclaimed Lesbian Period Films
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Setting: Late 18th century France
Country: France
Where to Watch: Hulu, Criterion Channel, MUBI
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🏆 Masterpiece
Synopsis: Without her knowledge, gifted young painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned in 1760 Brittany, France to finish a pre-wedding picture of affluent young lady Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). On a lonely island, the two ladies grow dependant on one another; the painter surreptitiously watches the woman’s every action during the day and paints at night. Even at a time governed by rigid decorum, a forbidden intimacy progressively surfaces between them as they become close via the process of painting and being painted. Their passion fuels ever more intensely as the wedding day draws near.
Why It’s Great: Filmed by French director Céline Sciamma and starring Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” won the Queer Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was praised as “the most beautiful film of the year”.
Three young women, the lady, the painter, and the maid, gather around a dinner table in a rich manor reading an ancient Greek myth about “Orpheus and Eurydice” by the flickering firelight, starting a little conversation on the subject: “Why did Orpheus turn around?”
In “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” this sequence is fascinating and provocative. Why is a far-off and ethereal Greek tale purposefully cited in this 18th-century same-sex love story? Is this fireside chat only entertainment for the young ladies to pass the time or a scene to change the mood of the movie?
Actually, the Orpheus myth is the secret to revealing the whole enigma of the movie. What film relevance does it have? You will know after seeing.
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Carol (2015)
Setting: 1950s New York
Country: United States
Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🏆 Highly Recommended
Synopsis: Set in 1950s America, teenage Therese (Rooney Mara) dreams of being a photographer even while she works as a salesgirl in a New York department store. The two click right away one day when a gorgeous and sophisticated blonde socialite named Carol (Cate Blanchett) visits the store to get a Christmas present. Following their meeting, Therese finds out Carol has a daughter and is divorcing her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler). Though society at the time forbids their connection, Therese and Carol find they are each other’s genuine love by means of letter correspondence, dating, and a road trip. While Carol’s husband pays a private investigator to compile proof, trying to leave her with nothing in the divorce process, Therese’s boyfriend thinks she’s just confused. For both ladies, the moment of truth shows up: can they stick to their hearts and follow their relationship to the finish, independent of the outcomes?
Why It’s Great: Renowned American independent director Todd Haynes’ new film “Carol” won the Best Actress Award after being nominated for the major category at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Originally published anonymously due to its delicate subject matter, Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian novella “The Price of Salt” was adapted for the movie; publishers even first rejected distribution of it. The title “The Price of Salt” comes from the 17th-century connotations of “salt” as female desire. The book allegorically depicts the women’s predicament: steak without salt tastes nothing; however, for this love, how much are you ready to pay?
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The Favourite (2018)
Setting: Early 18th century England
Country: United Kingdom
Where to Watch: HBO Max, Amazon Prime (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ 🏆 Award-winning
Synopsis: Early in the eighteenth century England is the setting for the narrative. The Queen of Great Britain, Anne (Olivia Colman) keeps a secret love relationship with her childhood friend Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough ( Rachel Weisz). Longing to fit into high society embodied by the royal court, Abigail (Emma Stone) is Sarah’s distant cousin. She comes to Sarah looking for work, but Sarah treats her dismissingly. Abigail draws Queen Anne’s attention and is let to serve at her side by her wit and scheming. Abigail soon learns the “little secret” separating Sarah from Queen Anne. Driven by ambition for authority and mystery, Abigail starts wishing she could replace Sarah and win the Queen over.
Why It’s Great: Though all the classic symbols of a historical court drama – ornate railings, flickering candles, Bach and Vivaldi’s music flowing with the visuals, cloud-like costumes and corsets – Greek auteur filmmaker Lanthimos’s new effort “The Favourite” is far from a stereotyped court film.
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Ammonite (2020)
Setting: 1840s England
Country: United Kingdom
Where to Watch: Hulu, Amazon Prime (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Mary (Kate Winslet) is a palaeontologist, set in England in the 1820s, but her career obviously cannot provide her a nice living. Mary still lives at the poverty line and works by gathering fossils on the beach to sell to visitors in order to pay for the treatment of her sick mother. A guy called Roderick (James McArdle) approaches Mary one day with a large pay offer for her to look after his sick wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan). Mary complies, unable to fight the financial temptation. But soon after meeting Charlotte, their very different points of view collide sharply. But over time, they each find in each other realms they have never known before.
Why It’s Great: “Ammonite” very gently depicts a lovely illusion in relationships: two quite different kinds of people can readily attract and spark in an isolated spot, yet one person cannot really comprehend the other, therefore rendering this beauty bitter and tragic.
Wild Nights with Emily (2018)
Setting: 19th century America
Country: United States
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Three stages of American poet Emily Dickinson’s life—as a young child, in middle age, and following death—as told in a very fractured narrative. Like “Vita & Virginia,” the movie bounces between scenes depending on poetry bits and emotions rather than following story or structure.
Why It’s Great: Being a biographical picture, the viewing experience is somewhat normal. The film’s narrative approach is intriguing, though; Emily’s story is relayed by Mabel, someone who never met Emily and thus utterly misunderstood and even perverted her conception of poetry and emotion.
Olnek started this piece as a stage drama for a 1999 New York production, then over twenty years later had it turned into a movie. While biographical narratives can never guarantee absolute objectivity, only striving to preserve the perspective and state of mind of the portrayed person, this story directly breaks from that framework, choosing an observer who never experienced the complete picture, describing it from an extremely subjective viewpoint and with dramatic pace.
Colette (2018)
Setting: Belle Époque France (late 19th/early 20th century)
Country: France
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime, Hulu
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Set in late 19th-century England, the straightforward and lovely Colette (Keira Knightley) marries playwright Willy (Dominic West). Supported by her husband, Colette picks up her pen and starts writing based on her own school experiences; finally, she finishes her first manuscript. Colette is surprised when Willy releases the book under his own name; it generates buzz in literary circles and immediately Willy becomes well-known. Willy starts pressuring his wife to be his ghostwriter after that since he finds her great creative ability. Willy turns to violence when Colette at last objects to her husband’s irrational demands. Colette finds that, although being female, Willy has a strong affinity to women when she starts an affair.
Why It’s Great: More than 60 years ago, Colette died away; her personal life and works will live in our time.
The first of Colette’s three marriages is chosen in the film, when the young Colette was already defining the expectations for Parisian women in the 20th century.
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The World to Come (2020)
Setting: Mid-19th century American frontier
Country: United States
Where to Watch: Hulu, Showtime
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ✅ Recommended
Synopsis: Set in northeastern United States in the middle of the 19th century, Abigail (Katherine Waterston) and her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck) maintain a farm where the hard labour allows no time for correspondence between them. Their marriage has been further strained by the recent death of their daughter from disease. Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) and Finney (Christopher Abbott) a young couple show up at the farm one day. Tallie’s circumstances are like those of Abigail’s; she likewise has a poor position in her family and suffers cold treatment from her husband since she cannot conceive. The two damaged ladies connect right away and soon form a real friendship. With time, this bond slowly spoils and smells like love.
Why It’s Great: It not only made a main competition nomination for the Venice Film Festival but also took home the Queer Lion Award. Still, audience expectations for the movie transcend these successes.
Apart from Oscar winner Casey Affleck’s twin roles as producer and performer, the cast comprises Katherine Waterston from “Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them,” and Vanessa Kirby, who took home the Venice Best Actress Award for the concurrently feminist work “Pieces of a Woman.”
Tell It to the Bees (2018)
Setting: 1950s small-town Scotland
Country: United Kingdom
Where to Watch: Hulu, Amazon Prime (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐½ 👍 Worth watching
Synopsis: Living in 1950s England, Lydia (Holliday Grainger) is a quite normal housewife. Lydia starts a dangerous life of dependency with her son Charlie after her husband brutally deserts her. Charlie is badly bullied at school due to home problems; the mother and son often find themselves in dire conditions. A female doctor called Jean (Anna Paquin) moves in next door to Lydia just when she is most hopeless. Jean is kind and gentle; she not only heals Charlie’s injuries but also welcomes the two into her house when they almost become homeless. Lydia hence moves into Jean’s residence. Over time, the two women experience a different kind of relationship while rumours about them go crazy across the tiny hamlet.
Why It’s Great: Homosexuality (as well as interracial partnerships like Anne’s) was far from popular in the first half of the 20 century. Two women’s close relationship will surely turn into scandalous. And Britain was a culture that hated but couldn’t stop hunting out scandals. This led to attacks by thugs against Young Jean and her lover. While Jean was sent away from the little town by her father, the girlfriend finally passed from extreme injuries. Jean’s sensitive and perceptive personality could be a result of her aversion to trauma and recurrent relocation in far-off countries. She was never a cowardly or evasive woman, though; she would still go for follow-up visits despite patient families’ ridicule; she could care for bees that scared common people; and at the lakeside, she was the one who unreservedly jumped into deep water to retrieve Charlie’s drifting boat. Maybe what she dreaded was causing damage to her loved one. She thus became more passive and reluctant, even purposefully keeping distance, in relationships the more she yearned connection.
Elisa & Marcela (2019)
Setting: Turn-of-the-century Spain (late 1800s/early 1900s)
Country: Spain
Where to Watch: Netflix
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐½ 👍 Worth watching
Synopsis: The narrative opens in 1898 in northwest Spain’s La Coruña city. At a convent school, Marcela (Greta Fernández) a recent transfer student meets Elisa (Natalia de Molina). The two girls grow fast friends, and over time their relationship changes to become blooming love. Obviously, at the time this immoral relationship was forbidden. Marcela’s father sends his daughter to another Madrid university in order to distance them. Three years pass in the blink of an eye, and by now Elisa is teaching in a small village while Marcela dutifully searches for her. At last the couple is back together. Eventually, though, public criticism cannot be overcome by their love. Elisa decides to go; Marcela marries a man.
Why It’s Great: Based on a real story, this movie chronicles the first lesbian couple to have a wedding in history. Early in the 20th century, when the public commonly misinterpreted homosexuality, Elisa and Marcela paid a very heavy price from their first meeting to at last spend their lives together.
Due to his association with Douglas, another European nation’s well-known writer Oscar Wilde was condemned to two years jail in Britain for “gross indecency”. The Spanish legal penalties were much more severe; illicit same-sex marriage would land one 10 to 20 years in prison.
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Vita & Virginia (2018)
Setting: 1920s England
Country: United Kingdom
Where to Watch: Hulu, Amazon Prime (rental)
Recommendation Level: ⭐⭐⭐½ 👍 Worth watching
Synopsis: Eileen Atkins’ 1992 stage drama of the same name serves as the basis for the screenplay. Woolf kept a sexual relationship and correspondence with West for ten years after wed her husband. Their friendship lasted until Woolf’s death, even though they finally broke up their romance.
Why It’s Great: Allow me to quickly introduce the two movie heroes. Adeline has Considered as a pioneer of 20th century modernism and feminism, Virginia Woolf (1882 January 25 – 1941 March 28) was a British writer, literary critic, and literary theorist, a prominent figure of stream of consciousness literature. She belonged to the Bloomsbury Group and was a prominent player in London’s literary scene between the two World Wars.
Twice consecutively, British writer, poet, and gardener Vita Sackville-West (1892 March 2 – 1962 June 2) won the Hawthornden Prize: 1927 and 1933. Her vibrant aristocratic life, affair with novelist Virginia Woolf, and Sissinghurst Castle she created with her husband Harold Nicolson are well-known.
Very much in line with conventional British film technique, this movie boasts good visual quality and a pleasant colour palette. Another biographical film on Woolf following “The Hours” (2002), but from its reception, it is far less popular than its predecessor.
Lesbian period dramas keep changing to offer ever more complex and real depictions of the experiences of lesbian women over history. These tales serve as a reminder that LGBTQ+ people have always existed and have always found means to show their love in face of social mores. Beyond simple portrayal, the best of these pieces examine universal issues of desire, identity, and courage via a gay prism.
Whether your taste is for the rich, immersive experiences that both entertain and enlighten “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” the historical veracity of “Gentleman Jack,” or the raw emotional force of “The World to Come,” these films and series appeal to you. The lesbian period drama genre seems to be a significant and changing component of LGBTQ+ storytelling for years to come as producers keep uncovering and reinventing queer historical narratives.
