Lesbian & bi period dramas that will take you back in time
| 12/09/24
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Courtesy of BBC; Ad Vitam Distribution; HBO
These movies are the best kind of time machine.
Lesbians and bi women have always existed, but it’s rare to see ourselves represented in history—especially in epic romantic costume dramas. These 35 period dramas about women loving women from the 1700s to the early 1960s will take you back in time!
Plus, where you can stream these films today!
Gentleman Jack
Gentleman Jack follows the (mostly true) adventures of landowner and industrialist Anne Lister (you'll see her name on this list again very soon) who struck up a forbidden romance with a woman named Ann Walker, in a time when it was, ahem, frowned upon. Period butch, yes, please!
Where to stream: Max
The Buccaneers
Based on the unfinished novel of Edith Wharton, this modernized (but don't worry still period set) follows a group of wealthy young american women who come to London to land themselves a lordly husband. And wouldn't you just know it there is secret lesbian in the bunch.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Black Sails
This actually pretty gay pirate series is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. Cool, but why is it on the list? Because queer lady pirates, that's why. We love a Sapphic swashbuckle.
Where to stream: Netflix, Starz, Roku, Starz, Spectrum, Plex, Prime Video, Tubi
Vita & Virginia
This film follows the true story of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf's romance. And it won't be the only version of that tale on your list today... however it is the only one staring Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debecki as lovers, so get into it.
Where to stream: AMC+, Kanopy, IFC Unlimited
The Color Purple
Celie's life of love and heartbreak plays out in this Academy Award nominated film (no, but seriously, how did it not win ANYTHING? It had 11 nominations! This is insanity). While this one will DEFINITELY require a box of tissues those stolen moment between Celie and Shug Avery make it a forever Sapphic classic.
Where to stream: Prime Video for rent
Summerland
The always dreamy Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in this World War II set period piece which follows reclusive writer Alice has her sequestered life upended when an evacuee from the London Blitz is left in her care.
Where to stream: AMC+, IFC Unlimited
The Confessions of Frannie Langton
This steamy and dark Sapphic period film follows the titular Frannie Langton following the mysterious murders of her employers. Housemaid and former slave Frannie quickly becomes the prime suspect and must piece together the events of that fateful night.
Where to stream: Britbox
Marie Antoinette
Fans of The Favourite take note! This BBC take on the ill-fated aristocrat Marie Antoinette gives her story a feminist and Sapphic twist.
Where to stream: PBS Masterpiece
Ammonite
Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) spends her life quietly finding and selling fossils to tourists to support herself and her ailing mother. But when Charlotte Murchison comes to town to care for husband's ailing wife they forge a passionate connection.
Where to stream: Kanopy
Benedetta
In this wickedly profane film from Paul Verhoeven a 17th Century nun embarks on a passionate lesbian romance, all while experiencing shocking religious visions.
Where to stream: Hulu, Criterion Channel, Max
Wild Nights With Emily
This charming and bittersweet take on Emily Dickenson's story follows the poets career and romance with Susan Gilbert.
Where to stream: Kanopy
Tell It To the Bees
Set in 1952 Tell it to the Bees ollows Dr. Jean Markham when she returns to her Scottish hometown to take over her father's medical practice. Shocker, she is instead ostracized by the community. However, she does strike up a passionate romance with a woman in town.
Where to stream: Hulu, Hoopla, Vudu, Kanopy, Plex, Max
The World To Come
Set in the mid-19th century on the American East Coast frontier, two farmers' wives strike up a passionate and dangerous romance.
Where to stream: Prime, Hulu, Hoopla, Max
A Quiet Passion
Emily Dickenson but this time played by Cynthia Nixon (And Emma Bell). Need we say more?
Where to stream: Prime Video, Fubo, Hoopla, Vudu, Tubi, Kanopy, Crackle, Plex, Ovid
Lizzie
Kristen Stewart and Chloë Sevigny star as lovers and murderous co-conspirators in this film depicting the infamous case of Lizzie Borden.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Roku, Hoopla, Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex, Vix
Elisa & Marcela
Set in In 1885, Elisa and Marcela first meet and embark on a forbidden love, that they are forced to hide. However in 1901, unable to stay apart Elisa adopts a male identity to be able to spend her life with the woman she loves.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Affair
Set on 1930s Czechoslovakia Liesel Landauer and her friend Hana share a friendship that is not so platonic. Also, there's some stuff about architecture.
Where to stream: Roku, Hoopla, Tubi
The Favourite
Set in the early 18th century, England Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) finds herself the object of desire of two competing women, her longtime companion Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), and a new ambitious servant, Abigail (Emma Stone). Essentially it's a Sapphic's dream come true.
Also, have you seen Weisz in those breeches? Be still my gay heart!
Where to stream: Prime Video for rent
The Handmaiden
Based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (for a more true-to-the-book version keep reading), this twisty sapphic thriller was adapted and directed by Park Chan-Wook who moved the romance from Victorian England to Japanese-occupied Korea. The film follows two women, a Japanese heiress named Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) and a Korean pickpocket named Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) who fall passionately in love despite the betrayal plot brewing between them.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Colette
Forever lesbian fave Kiera Knightly makes our cinematic dreams come true by playing real-life novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. After her ghostwritten semi-autobiographical novel becomes a success she begins fighting for creative ownership despite the taboos she would be breaking both on the written page and in the real world.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Starz, Hoopla, Kanopy
Carol
Based on the groundbreaking novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, this 2015 romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes will take you back to the Christmas season of 1952, where Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a temporary shop girl and photographer, and Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a mother separated from her husband, begin a forbidden love affair that takes them from New York City to Waterloo, Iowa and back.
Where to stream: Netflix, Fubo, Showtime, Paramount+
Heavenly Creatures
This 1994 Peter Jackson film about the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case follows Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) after Juliet moves to Christchurch, New Zealand and creates a fantasy world with Pauline. The girls grow closer, but when Juliet’s father confronts Pauline’s parents about their daughters’ inappropriate relationship and the girls are pulled apart, they reach a breaking point.
Not currently streaming.
Reaching for the Moon
This 2013 biopic portrays the tumultuous relationship between Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares and American poet Elizabeth Bishop set among the stunning backdrop of Petrópolis between 1951 and 1967.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Roku, Kanopy
Tipping the Velvet
Tipping the Velvet (based on the bestselling Sarah Waters novel of the same name) is a 2002 BBC mini-series that will transport you to Victorian England, and draw you into the story of Nan, a young woman who falls in love with Kitty Butler, a male impersonator, who she follows to London.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Britbox, Roku, Tubi
Bessie
This HBO biopic about legendary blues singer Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah) doesn’t shy away from Smith’s bisexuality, and shows her relationship with her lover Lucille, who serves as a composite of several of Smith’s real life girlfriends.
Where to stream: Max
Farewell, My Queen
Farewell, My Queen is a 2012 French drama that presents a fictionalized account of the last days of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) as seen through the eyes of Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux), a young deeply devoted servant. Virginie Ledoyen plays the Duchess of Polignac, who the queen is infatuated with.
Where to stream: Tubi, Kanopy, Cohen Media Channel
Another Way
This 1982 film was a cult classic for lesbian audiences in Cold War Hungary. The story follows an affair between two women in the late 1950s, Éva, a journalist at a weekly periodical, and Livia, a married woman. The film opens with the murdered Éva before their story unfolds.
Not currently streaming.
Courtesy of Senator Film
Aimée & Jaguar
This 1999 German drama set in Berlin during World War II follows the lives of Lilly Wurst, a married mother of four who has a philandering Nazi officer husband, and Felice Schragenheim, a Jewish woman who belongs to an underground organization, through their intense relationship.
Where to stream: Hoopla, Kanopy, OVID, My Film Friend
The Girl King
The Girl King is a 2015 biographical drama about Christina, Queen of Sweden, who rose to power after the death of her father, King Gustav. She finds herself drawn to Countess Ebba Sparre, who becomes one of Christina’s ladies in waiting and her royal bedfellow.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi, Kanopy
Daphne (2007) - Daphne/EllenDaphne
This BBC postwar biopic about writer Daphne Du Maurier’s charts her unrequited love for her publisher’s wife Ellen Doubleday, and her affair with actress Gertrude Lawrence. Daphne and Gertrude are both bisexual, but their husbands rarely appear or factor into the plot of the film.
Where to stream: Fubo, Peacock, Roku, Hoopla, Vudu, Tubi, Kanopy, Pluto TV
Fingersmith
This two-part BBC mini-series adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel is another engrossing Victorian England period drama. The worlds of two very different young women, Sue Trinder, a pickpocket, and Maud Lilly, who stands to inherit a fortune when she marries, collide in an unlikely romance.
Where to stream: AMC+, Britbox, Sundance
The World Unseen
This 2007 historical drama written and directed by Shamim Sarif is set in 1950s Cape Town, South Africa during the beginning of apartheid. The movie follows two Indian South African women who fall in love in spite of the racism, sexism, and homophobia of the society they live in.
Where to stream: Here TV
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
This 2010 biopic about 19th century landowner Anne Lister drew from Lister’s coded diaries. The story follows her lesbian relationships, and uniquely independent lifestyle as an industrialist.
Where to stream: Fandango for rent
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
When writer and director Céline Sciamma's film premiered in 2019, it became an instant classic. And for good reason! The beautiful period movie tells the emotional love story of Marianne (Noémie Merlant) an artist tasked with painting the portrait of a young aristocrat named Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) during the end of the eighteenth century.
Where to stream: Hulu, Kanopy
The Hours
One more Emily Dickenson entry! This time Nicole takes on the role of the iconic poet.
Where to stream: Fubo, Showtime, Paramount+
