Emma Corrin’s fascination with playing women in unsatisfying hetero relationships reaches its apex in their new project, an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In the movie, based on the aforementioned book that was banned for being so lewd and controversial upon publication, they play the titular Lady Chatterley: a woman who — having moved to the countryside with her injured, wealthy husband — engages in a deeply horny and exposing side-relationship with the groundskeeper, played by Jack O’Connell. In films of this ilk, usually geared towards prudish older audiences, such affairs are usually framed in a demure, suggestive manner. In Lady Chatterley’s Lover, there’s full-on doggy style.
To celebrate its release in cinemas, before hitting Netflix on 2 December, here are seven other erotic period dramas you can watch after you’ve had your fill from Emma Corrin’s impressive and compelling latest movie.
1. Elisa & Marcela (2019)
Inspired by the true life tale of Spain’s first same-sex marriage, Elisa & Marcela takes us back to the turn of the 20th century, when the two titular characters meet and engage in a lustful and dangerous love affair, shielded by the outside perception of their relationship as being one between a man and a woman. Of course, along the way, Elisa & Marcela captures the couple’s most intimate moments in a stark and emotive cinematographic detail: bare skin, kisses and shared cigarettes.
2. The Tudors (2007-2010)
Jonathan “Jess, I’m Irish” Rhys Meyers was the fiery heartthrob at the centre of this multi-Emmy-winning Showtime series about Henry VIII and his many wives. Taking liberties with real Tudor history, the show instead opted to make the lives of these ancient royals a bit more soapy and a whole lot more sexy. Running for four seasons, the show entertained and appalled audiences, with the uptight parental warning site Common Sense Media flagging its “full-blown” sex scenes and same sex kisses and shags. Iconic!
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Céline Sciamma’s celebrated romantic drama is demure and winking until the clothes start coming off. The film follows a stubborn woman refusing to sit for an artist who will paint the portrait her future husband will judge her from. A woman, hired as her maid, is actually trying to sketch her for the same reason, albeit in secret. It moves slowly, reappropriating the tropes of period dramas, before the first, sensual kiss comes. Shoutout to the scene featuring a carefully placed mirror covering a woman’s nether regions. Jane Austen could never!
4. Original Sin (2001)
A critical bomb, Original Sin is, according to Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus, “laughably melodramatic… features bad acting, poor dialogue and even worse plotting”. But there is a whole lot of sex! Set in late 19th century Cuba, Antonio Banderas plays a man who gaslights his mail order bride, played by Angelina Jolie, into moving countries for him. They’re both deceptive — a fact that plays a key part in how this sexy, if batshit crazy and not very good movie unfolds.
5. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Controversial for a few reasons — its unexpected Oscar sweep being one of them — this reframing of Shakespeare being an absolute shagger isn’t exactly serious kino. But it does amp up the usually stale genre to give us a lustrous look at an imaginary relationship between Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps, one the film frames as inspiration for Romeo & Juliet. Never before has a legend of theatre had such a horny framing.
6. The Favourite (2018)
Foul mouthed and repulsive, The Favourite earned most of its main cast Oscar nominations by throwing the astute framing of period cinema out the window. Instead, we had a funny, shag-heavy film that features boobs, butts and a wank scene.
7. Tipping the Velvet (2002)
A three-part BBC series that featured a young Benedict Cumberbatch, this sapphic love story broke the boundaries of what the public broadcaster traditionally allowed, becoming the most sexually explicit LGBTQ+ series in their history. The show, like Elisa & Marcela, is built around the sly framing of a Victorian-era same-sex relationship that’s hidden from outsiders by one partner who’s a male impersonator. In another BBC first, it features a dildo scene — don’t say the Victorian lesbians didn’t know how to play!