Medieval Society: The Villagers (1976)

The Genius of Gothic Art

Death and the devil, nudity and eroticism, horror in blazing colours, Gothic art cast a spell over people 500 years ago. In these image-poor times, art deliberately and skilfully played with the emotions of the viewer, triggering fear, devotion, but also rapture. Art documentary on German gothic art of the late-middle ages.

Das Voynich-Manuskript - Die geheimnisvollste Handschrift der Welt

It is the world’s most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling — and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode. No wonder that this script even has a part in Dan Brown’s latest bestseller “The Lost Symbol”.

The Time Factory

Who invented time, who invented the clock? Why 1 hour, why 60 minutes, why 60 seconds? Since prehistoric times, man has sought to measure time, to organize social and religious life, to plan food supply... Today we can surf the Internet, geolocate, pay by credit card… All our daily lives depend on time and the synchronization of clocks. The history of the invention of time and of the ways and instruments to measure it is a long story…

The Eyes of Dante

He is considered the greatest European poet of the Middle Ages and his work unfolds the whole panopticon of occidental education – theology, philosophy, sciences, politics and literature. But who has really read it, the “Divine Comedy”? Who knows more of its creator Dante Alighieri than that he had an eagle-like profile and was in love with a woman named Beatrice? 700 years after Dante’s death, the filmmaker Adolfo Conti travels through Italy with Dante’s words in mind and eyes to see the world as Dante did. As the film encounters the beauty of arts and the Tuscan landscape, the forces of nature, a dramatic life story is unfolded.

The Builders of the Alhambra

Kingdom of Granada, al-Andalus, 14th century. After recognizing that his land, always under siege, is hopelessly doomed to be conquered, Sultan Yusuf I undertakes the construction of a magnificent fortress with the purpose of turning it into the landmark of his civilization and his history, a glorious monument that will survive the oblivion of the coming centuries: the Alhambra.

When the Lion Roars

This is the story of the Bohemian King, Přemysl Otakar II, and the forgotten pilgrim, Odorik, who was the first-ever European to set eyes on Tibet. This medieval road movie brings an unconventional view to these two great figures of Czech medieval history. While the character of Odorik, regarded as the “Bohemian Marco Polo,” is practically unknown to us, the Bohemian King Přemysl Otakar II is either demonized or dismissed by the traditional clichés of the “Iron and Golden King.” In a private conversational format, the film’s author gives us a glimpse of this medieval world, set nearly 700 years apart from our modern context. But nothing has been lost in terms of this world’s impact or relevance, for both Odorik and Přemysl have outlived their time. Their lives are surprisingly endearing and touch on many of our current feelings.

Häxan

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

Reformation: Europe's Holy War

Historian David Starkey tells the story of the Protestant Reformation and how it transformed the face of modern Europe, unleashing fundamentalism, terror and religious violence.

William the Conqueror

England, 11th century. William the Conqueror (ca. 1027-1087) wins the Battle of Hastings (1066), changing the shape of medieval Europe and the course of English history. An account of the life of the extraordinary Norman warrior who became king.

Black Knight

Martin Lawrence plays Jamal, an employee in Medieval World amusement park. After nearly drowning in the moat, he awakens to find himself in 14th century England.

The Visitors

After a wizard's spell goes awry, 12th-century Gallic knight Godefroy de Papincourt, Count of Montmirail finds himself transported to 1993, along with his dimwitted servant, Jacquouille la Fripouille. Startled and perplexed by modern technology, the duo run amok, destroying cars and causing chaos until they meet Beatrice de Montmirail, an aristocratic descendant of the nobleman, who may be able to help them get back to 1123.

Arn: The Knight Templar

Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love.

Army of Darkness

Ash, a handsome, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed department store clerk, is time warped backwards into England's Dark Ages, where he romances a beauty and faces legions of the undead.

The Warrior

In 1375, China was in chaos between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Coryo (an ancient kingdom of Korea then) sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers and a silent slave to make peace with the new Chinese government. However, this delegation got charged as spies and sent in exile to a remote desert.

Pathfinder

Around the year 1000 AD warlike people, the so-called "tjuder", roam in northern Scandinavia. As they brutally kill a family in a remote area, including the parents and their little daughter, the family's teenage son, Aigin, observes the slaughter. He manages to flee from these killers and reaches a camp with other Sámi whose inhabitants are worried if he has been able to hide his track. Afraid of the murderous people, they decide to flee to the coast. The boy stays alone to avenge his family's murder. Unfortunately, they get him before he can do anything and force him to lead them to the other Sámi. He guides them but has a plan to destroy the barbarous people before reaching the camp.

Crusade in Jeans

Dolf a 15 year old boy is sent back in time by a timemachine. Accidentally he is sent back to the Middle Ages. He is rescued by children who are part of a childrens' crusade, on their way to rescue Jeruzalem. During the trip Dolf finds out the danger is not coming from outside the crusade, but from within.

Robin Hood

A war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown.

Andrei Rublev

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

Camelot

The plot of his illegitimate son Mordred to gain the throne, and Guinevere's growing attachment to Sir Lancelot, threatens to topple King Arthur and destroy his "round table" of knights.

Season of the Witch

A 14th century Crusader returns with his comrade to a homeland devastated by the Black Plague. The Church commands the two knights to transport a witch to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in hopes of ending the pestilence.

For Love and Gold

A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.

Three Pages

An unassuming middle-aged accountant learns he has only weeks to live. Rather than tell everyone, Martin determines to learn the three pages of a Bach adagio for piano he'd abandoned as a child. That accomplished, he performs the piece for his wife and friends, completing his life and thanking those who brightened it along the way.

Knights of the Round Table

In Camelot, kingdom of Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot is well known for his courage and honor. But one day he must quit Camelot and the Queen Guinevere's love, leaving the Round Table without protection.

Another Woman

Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.

The Charlemagne Code

An action-packed race to find the legendary treasure of the Nibelungen hidden by Charlemagne and thought to be the biggest lost treasure in the world.

Tristan & Isolde

An affair between the second in line to Britain's throne and the princess of the feuding Irish spells doom for the young lovers.

The Masque of the Red Death

A European prince terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.

Jack the Giant Killer

The terrible and trecherous Pendragon plans to gain the throne of Cornwall by getting the king to abdicate and to marry his lovely daughter. To help him he has his dreadful witches in his castle and his almost unstoppable sorcery. A giant under his control abducts the princess, but on the way home with her the giant meets farming lad Jack who slays him. This is only the beginning.

Die Pilgerin

In the 14th century, a young merchant's daughter from southern Germany sets off on the adventurous Way of St. James to faraway Santiago de Compostela to fulfill her father's last wishes and bring his heart there. Disguised as a man, the pilgrim is hunted by pursuers set on her by her conniving brother.

Toldi

Animated version of a famous Hungarian epic tale by János Arany. Through the story of Miklós Toldi, we witness a brutal young man learning to master his strength and inner struggles to become King Louis I’s most famous knight. Toldi clashes with his scheming elder brother and travels from the marshlands to 14th-century Pest, fighting every challenge to prove his honor. His journey of self-discovery and courage unfolds against the rich backdrop of the chivalric world and the Hungarian plains.

Same Time, Next Year

A man and woman meet by chance at a romantic inn over dinner and, although both are married to others, they find themselves in the same bed the next morning questioning how this could have happened. They agree to meet on the same weekend each year—in the same hotel room—and the years pass each has some personal crisis that the other helps them through, often without both of them understanding what is going on.

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe, a worthy and noble knight, the champion of justice returns to England after the holy wars, and finds England under the reign of Prince John and his henchmen and finds himself being involved in the power-struggle for the throne of England.

The Green Knight

An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men.

Beatrice

Somewhere in France during the Middle Ages. Béatrice is impatient to see her father return from English captivity. She doesn't expect however that the father whom she loves from distance will be the most hateful person who will submit her and her family to abuse and humiliation.

The Headsman and the Harlot

Sweden, beginning of the 18th Century. Executions are popular entertainment and brothels a given. Still the executioner and the whore are both despised and shunned. The executioner became executioner against his will and the whore, only 17 years old, was forced into the brothel. This is the story of how the two meet and exchange cruelty with tenderness, guilt with innocence.

Black Death

As the plague decimates medieval Europe, rumours circulate of a village immune from the plague. There is talk of a necromancer who leads the village and is able to raise the dead. A fearsome knight joined by a cohort of soldiers and a young monk are charged by the church to investigate. Their journey is filled with danger, but it's upon entering the village that their true horror begins.

Two Tickets to Paradise

Three guys on the verge of forty begin to realize all the best things in their lives happened before they were twenty. A spontaneous road trip adventure gives them a chance to balance the ledger

Nothing Left to Do But Cry

Two 20th-century friends accidentally stumble into the year 1492, where they meet a charming teen and try to alter history.

Robin Hood

When soldier Robin happens upon the dying Robert of Loxley, he promises to return the man's sword to his family in Nottingham. There, he assumes Robert's identity; romances his widow, Marion; and draws the ire of the town's sheriff and King John's henchman, Godfrey.

The Name of the Rose

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

Fury of the Pagans

In an imaginary northern European country during the High Middle Ages, two leaders of a barbarian village fight to gain power: one is good and right and the other is an evil selfish. Who will have it?

The Seventh Seal

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Immoral Tales

Four erotic tales from in various historical eras. The first, 'The Tide', is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. 'Therese Philosophe' is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. 'Erzsebet Bathory' is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while 'Lucrezia Borgia' concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.

Mama Mama Jagoan

Myrna, whose husband just passed away, struggling with depression. She just found her purpose once again when she received a postcard from Monang, her son which ran away from home because of conflicts with his father. Accompanied by two of her best friends, Dayu and Hasnah, Myrna decided to search for Monang in Bali, with the postcard as their only clue of Monang's whereabouts. Once they arrived in Bali, they realized it is not easy to find Monang, they had many unfortunate events which lead them to jail, until they have arguments with each ocher which caused their life-long friendship breaking apart. Will Myrna succeeded to find Monang? How will their friendship stands?

Barbarossa

Year 1100. Italy.The Northern lands are ruled by a German emperor: Fredrick aka "Barbarossa. His dream is to conquer also the lands in the Center and in the South so as to revive the Empire that was once of the one Charles Magno.But in the North a young man from Milan has formed an army of 900 young men coming from different cities: the "company of death". This young man's name is Alberto Da Giussano. His dream is to defeat the Emperor and to give back freedom to the Northern lands.

The Little Hours

Garfagnana, Italy, 1347. The handsome servant Masseto, fleeing from his vindictive master, takes shelter in a nunnery where three young nuns, Sister Alessandra, Sister Ginevra and Sister Fernanda, try unsuccessfully to find out what their purpose in life is, a conundrum that each of them faces in different ways.