Merovingian Movies Mania, Part 2: The Good King Dagobert

The Good King Dagobert

The synopsis is quite simple: a boy has some homework to complete about the life of the king. He daydreams, transforms his parents as the king and one of his queens …

Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance

gandalf-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug

Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?

Macbeth film ‘Enemy of Man’ looks to raise money on Kickstarter

enemy of man

An independent feature film of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth starring Sean Bean, Rupert Grint and Charles Dance has almost raised half of the $250 000 they are seeking on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.

Star Wars and the Middle Ages

Star Wars and the Middle Ages

When George Lucas wrote up the screen play that would become Episode IV: A New Hope, he would make use of medieval history to help create his galaxy far, far away.

Vikings in Cinema: a Case Study of How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon

This paper combines archaeological attention to the past (the Vikings and their material culture, beliefs and so on and a Žižekian fascination with Hollywood films to examine How to Train Your Dragon (2010), a 3-D animated film about Vikings for children.

Five Things to Love About A Knight’s Tale

A Knight's Tale

Was it really just a sports movie set in the past? Yes. Was it edited until the plot seems a little less-than-coherent? Yes. But are there things we can love about it? Absolutely.

A Quest for the Black Knight: Casting People of Color in Arthurian Film and Television

Angel Coulby as Gwen

However, though there are more people of color in Arthurian film and television productions, progress toward inclusivity has not been quick or simple to achieve.

Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality

A Stranger among us (Film)

According to quite a few books and films produced in the last few decades in Europe and North America, sex is widely celebrated in Jewish sources

Apocalypse et Moyen Âge : un cocktail détonnant

“Four Horsemen of Apocalypse” (1887) by the Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov

Dans l’imaginaire contemporain, Apocalypse et Moyen âge semblent aller de pair. Rares sont les films médiévalistes où il n’est pas question de fin du monde, où qui ne représente pas une société en plein déclin, au bord de sa propre destruction.

Arms and the Man: how the Scots who bled with Wallace fought in Braveheart and in History

Braveheart battle scene

What Braveheart showed was a parody of an archery barrage which, in fact, would be fairly continuous until most of the arrows available, about forty to each bowman, had been shot. Nor would there be longish pauses between single flights of arrows, in perhaps a sporting spirit in order to give the Scots time to recover their spirits and dress their ranks in time for the next hail of missiles, or, in the film, to bare their arses in vulgar mockery of their enemies.

Knights of Badassdom

Knights of Badassdom map

TUGG screenings begin January 21st; available On Demand and Digitally February 11th

Were the Peasants Really So Clean? The Middle Ages in Film

The Name of the Rose - movie

Movies about the European Middle Ages are profoundly modern creations. They tend to reflect the anxieties and preoccupations of their modern creators rather than those of people who lived a thousand years ago.

Would the Real William Wallace Please Stand Up

William Wallace Statue

The object of this paper is to give a brief outline of the life of William Wallace, and to make references in passing to the film, Braveheart, loosely based on the life of William Wallace, starring the Australian actor Mel Gibson.

Wounded

wounded_film

Two knights and a foot soldier survive the massacre only to be hunted down in a forest infested with enemy.

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

hobbit_desolation_of_smaug_review

While the first film was mostly criticized for its divergences from the novel, in this second instalment they usually prove to be an improvement.

Medieval Myth-Busting at the Movies

Medieval Movie Myth: You generally don't try to jump into sea with your armour on

The five of the most common myths about the Middle Ages from the movies, busted.

The Development of Arthurian Legends

Guinevere’s marriage to Arthur

King Arthur is a well known character of literature and film, and any person on the street could probably recall many aspects of his story. However, the story that so many people know and love is the result of hundreds of years of transformation and manipulation of a legend. It did not begin with much grandiosity or with very much background information.

Cutting and Running from the (Medieval) Middle East: The Mises-hors-scène of Kingdom of Heaven’s Double DVDs

Kingdom of Heaven (film)

Cutting and Running from the (Medieval) Middle East: The Mises-hors-scène of Kingdom of Heaven’s Double DVDs Richard Burt 15 | 2007 : Le Moyen Âge mis en scène : perspectives contemporaines Abstract “There is no escaping the parallels with our time, when leaders who try to make peace are admired, but their efforts are subverted by […]

Medieval Movie Review: Army of Darkness

army-of-darkness

Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my boomstick!

Getting Schmedieval: Of Manuscript and Film Prologues, Paratexts, and Parodies

the-Adventures_of_Robin_Hood_1938

Getting Schmedieval: Of Manuscript and Film Prologues, Paratexts, and Parodies Richard Burt (Guest Co-Editor, University of Florida) EXEMPLARIA: VOL. 19, NO. 2, SUMMER 2007, 217 – 242 Abstract This introduction examines how historical effects in cinematic medievalism are produced through analogies between their shared marginal paratexts, including historiated letters, prefaces, opening title sequences, film prologues, and intertitles. […]

Here comes the Hun again…

Sign of the Pagan

TSMorangles takes a look at the 1954 film Sign of the Pagan, starring Jack Palance as Attila and Jeff Chandler as Marcian.

Movie Preview: Vikingdom

Vikingdom

Being released today in 21 cities across the United States, this Malaysian-made film is loosely based on Viking mythology.

Review: Prince Vladimir

PrinceVladimir

If the Anglo-Saxons bemoan about the mist surrounding the Dark Ages, wait till you meet Russians!

The ‘New’ Monty Python and the Holy Grail trailer

monty python and the holy grail trailer

Imagine Monty Python and the Holy Grail not as a comedy, but as a serious historical epic! This would be its trailer.

Manifestations of the Grotesque and Carnivalesque Body in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

Manifestations of the Grotesque and Carnivalesque Body in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal Brian Gourley (School of English, Queen’s University Belfast)Queen’s University Belfast, Quest, Vol.1 (2006) Abstract Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) remains arguably his best-known work. If one talks of the existence of a genre of medieval film, and subsequently, the […]

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