“Movies are a form of escapism” said someone probably at some point. And when have we all wanted to escape our lives more than right now? Sometimes you’ll want to escape into something comforting and familiar. Sometimes you’ll need to escape into a world new to you. In this series, I shall guide you through the genres of film & tv escapism so we can all experience something, anything, else.
No one wants to actually live in the past or even think about the chamber pots and menstrual products of the past. Fortunately, movies set in the past usually don’t show the ugly bits; just the rich people and the pretty parts of their lives.
My long-time favourite period film is Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. If it isn’t a comfort watch for you yet; it could be. Do you like pastels? Kirsten Dunst? Lavish parties? Pretty pastries? Adam Ant? Masquerade balls? The French countryside or overly decorated palaces? It’s a pastel cream puff dream scored with 80s bops. You can have your cake and watch it too.
Emily Dickinson is so hot. A hot trend and Hot for Sue (her BFF/sister-in-law/lover). Last year blessed us with both a film and a series based on Emily Dickinson’s life (which we actually don’t know much about since she didn’t do much of historical note and only became a famous poet posthumously). Both Wild Nights with Emily (film starring Molly Shannon) and Dickinson (series starring Hailee Steinfeld) are hilarious, dry, cheeky depictions of a misunderstood woman.
(Can we make ‘Hot for Sue’ a euphemism for wlw? As in “Is that new show gay?” “Oh, ya, it’s Hot for Sue.” Take it and run with it, kids.)
If you’d like more queer period pieces, you’re in luck because they’ve been quite popular recently with The Favourite, Vita and Virginia, The Handmaiden, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. And even more in series, like Gentleman Jack, Black Sails, and Harlots.
If you’re more of an Austen fan, I suggest Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was my first Pride and Prejudice adaptation, or so I thought, until I realized the story was exactly Bridget Jones’s Diary. Then I had no trouble keeping track of what everyone’s problems were. The latest Austen adaptation, Emma., delivers on lavish households in delicious colours, like Marie Antoinette, and has the cheek of Dickinson. And unlike a Pride and Prejudice movie, its 90s adaptation strays from the original so you won’t be comparing it to Clueless the entire movie.
But maybe you don’t want to go all the way back to the 18th or 19th centuries. You could pop back to the swingin’ 60s or the roaring 20s through film. Either modern films set in those decades or films actually from those decades. (Or both- Thoroughly Modern Millie is a delightful 1967 movie set in the 20s.) Where/Whenever you wish to travel to in films, you’ll be sure to find it a welcome reprieve from modern life. (Just try not to think about how women were dealing with their periods.)