Movie setting search?

April 1, 2006 5:58 PM

Are there any websites that allow you to search for movies set in different eras?

My brother has totally gotten a bum deal. It's his senior year, it should be easy...... right?!? I'm trying to help him look for research sources for his (hopefully) last project of the year. We're looking for a way to search for movies that were set in a different era other than the one they were filmed in. Examples:

Titanic
Memoirs of a Geisha
Gone with the Wind
Last Samurai
Alice in Wonderland
The Crucible

etc...

I've found lists on Amazon.com which I suppose helps somewhat. But not really what I had in mind.

Does anyone know of a website or search engine that does this (somewhat) easily?

posted by damnjezebel to media & arts (10 comments total)

What era is Alice in Wonderland set in?

Allmovie's Film Finder might help (search by setting/time period).
posted by box at 6:07 PM on April 1, 2006

If I'm not mistaken, it's set in the late 1800's/early 1900's... or I could have possibly pulled that out of my ass.
posted by damnjezebel at 6:10 PM on April 1, 2006

Ok I just checked the Film Finder website. It would be awesome if it actually worked. Instead I keep getting errors when I use the search function. Bleh!
posted by damnjezebel at 6:17 PM on April 1, 2006

I sort of backed into this at IMDB, by entering the words 'period piece'. There are hundreds of movies listed on the right, and you can use the keywords on the left as filters. It's not perfect, but it's a start. It only works with films that have been described as period pieces, and so probably wouldn't find any movies set in the future.

Is your brother's assignment finding a search engine that finds movies set in different eras, or is his assignment to find actual movies?
posted by iconomy at 6:29 PM on April 1, 2006

That imdb link - you could use the keywords 17th century or 18th and so on to find more flicks.
posted by iconomy at 6:35 PM on April 1, 2006

box, I checked and Alice in Wonderland was written in 1865 and was somewhat in reference to a little girl the author at met 3 years earlier.

iconomy - his assignment is to find at least 5 period pieces and give a review of the movie and of his impressions of that period in time and how it compares to our current era. Any era before 1940 is up for grabs, but bonus points are given if he chooses movies that aren't chosen by anyone else. Normally, he wouldn't care about the bonus points, but as he graduates in May, he needs all the points he can get to drive his gpa up.

I checked IMDB. They have between 15 and 30 in each category, but a lot of them (at least the ones I noticed) aren't very accurate. I found a few movies that are off by at least 300 years or more. I'm going to keep digging around in it, though.
posted by damnjezebel at 6:54 PM on April 1, 2006

Ah, gotcha.

While none of these are actually search engines, maybe some of these lists would help?

http://demode.tweedlebop.com/cinema.html
http://www.liming.org/revlist/movies.html
http://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemovies/
posted by iconomy at 7:06 PM on April 1, 2006

It's not a database, but you could check out http://www.paulkerensa.com/movietimeline/. It lists the year, the event occurring, and then the movie title, so you could do a text-string search within the page. It's by no means authoritative or exhaustive, but it's kind of neat.
posted by mhespenheide at 8:46 PM on April 1, 2006

I think an easier way to go about it is just pick an actor or director (or even genre you like) and quickly scan Amazon or even better, Blockbuster.

E.g. starting with "Russell Crowe movies," you could do "Master and Commander" (1800s), "Gladiator" (Roman), "L.A. Confidential" (1950s), "Cinderella Man" (Depression) and "The Quick and the Dead" (Old west).

Whereas if you do find some kind of "master list," you and your brother are going to be overwhelmed with movies you've never heard of and have no interest in.

By the way, be prepared to defend your choices wtih this definition of "era:" a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event, which, to my mind, applies to individual decades from this century.
posted by zanni at 4:28 AM on April 2, 2006

Zanni, that is very true. Thanks for pointing that out. As far as I know of, he wasn't given a distinction. So who knows.

Iconomy and mhespenheide, i gave him your links so he can investigate on his own while I do the same independantly. I'm trying to stay as far out of it as possible, just giving him a bit of guidance as to where he could find appropriate movies.

Thanks, ya'll!
posted by damnjezebel at 4:56 AM on April 2, 2006