Wigs and Candles

This season, we tried something a little different. We tried to learn about wigs, this most important accessory and one of the main contributors to our obsession with period film! Join us a we share what we learned through our research and look at some of our favourite wig moments out the 30! movies we have reviewed so far. Books and websites mentioned: Book: "Fashions in Hair: the First Five Thou...

To close their 5th season dedicated to artists and films about their lives, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2018 film Van Gogh: At Eternity’s Gate . Directed by Julien Schnabel and starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh, the movie is a visually arresting and moving depiction of the painter’s last years. In their discussion, Gaby and Andreina discuss the representation of the artist’s imagination...

In this episode, Andreina and Gabriela learn more about the French sculptor Camille Claudel (1864-1943), through two films: Camille Claudel (1988) and Camille Claudel 1915 (2013). An artistic prodigy from a very young age, Claudel gained recognition and acclaim as an artist during her lifetime. However, in the popular imagination, she is most often remembered as Auguste Rodin's lover. Andreina and...

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina learn more about the French artist Camille Claudel (1864-1943) by watching two films portraying different times in her life: Camille Claudel (1988) and Camille Claudel 1915 (2013). Claudel became one of the most acclaimed sculptors of her time through prodigious ability and drive. However, in popular imagination, she is most often remembered as August Rodin's lov...

Gaby and Andreina continue their exploration of art through period film and discuss the film Mr. Turner. Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Timothy Spall as the English romantic painter J. M. W. Turner, the movie tells the story of the painter during the last 50 years of his life when he was at the peak of his artistic abilities. Gaby and Andreina discuss Timothy Spall's portrayal of the painter...

In this first episode of the 5th season of Wigs and Candles, Andreina and Gaby discuss the film Hilma , a biographical movie about the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. Gaby and Andreina talk about Klint's career as a female painter in the 19th and early 20th centuries and her unusual approach to art and spiritual painting, a genre to which she greatly contributed. Touching on themes of what it is t...

To cap off their 4th season,  Gaby and Andreina discuss the 1975 Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon. With the help of a very special guest, we discuss the technical marvels of this film as well as it enduring beauty and depth. Sources and links: Barry Lyndon  Making of Leon Vitali on Kubrick Review from The Guardian Roger Ebert Review

In this episode, Gaby, Andreina, and a special guest, discuss the beloved 2005 Joe Wright adaptation of Pride and Prejudice . One of the most popular adaptions of the novel by Jane Austen, the film remains surprisingly fresh after almost 20 years since it was released. Gaby, Andreina and their guest discuss the movie timelessness, the remarkable cast, and many other fun detours along the way. ***S...

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina finally watch a movie they have been waiting a long time to discuss. A Royal Affair , tells the story of Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain and her husband King Christian VII. The story follows the years during Christian's reign when the ideas of the Enlightenment start to be introduced into the kingdom, mainly through the influence of Johann Friedrich St...

In this episode, Andreina and Gabriela discuss the 2022 film The Woman King. Written by  Dana Stevens and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King tells the true story of the Agojie, an all-female warrior force in the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1830s, in what is present-day Benin. Starring a formidable Viola Davis as the military general who eventually would become the woman king, the film...

There’s nothing little in the story of this film nor in the significance of the topics it touches on. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019) is a wonderful, fierce, and modern adaptation of this classic, bringing all the themes that have made it one of the most beloved books of the last 150 years.  Centered on the character of Jo March, an aspiring writer, Little Women tells the story of the March sis...

In a baroque opera hall in Paris sometime in the late 1700s, there’s a concert taking place.  The audience is hypnotized by the virtuosity of the main violin player and the beauty of the music. And still, the most puzzling fact about the scene is the player’s skin colour: it’s Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges, and he’s Black.  Born in Guadeloupe to an enslaved African woman and a French...

The Liberator tells the story, in wide strokes, of Simón Bolívar, the military leader , and most important Venezuelan historical figure. In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2013 film with the help of a very special guest. Placing the film in the historical and political context in which it was made, we look at the role of historical films in creating a national identity and memory.  Joi...

In this episode, Andreina and Gabriela discuss the 2020 film Ammonite with a very special guest. Ammonite tells the story of 19th-century British paleontologist Mary Anning.  An imaginary retelling of a brief period of her life, the film is directed by Francis Lee and stars Kate Winslet in the role of  Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchinson, her lover. Join us as we discuss this per...

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2022 film Emily , written and directed by Frances O'Connor in her directorial debut. Emily is a part-fictional portrait of English writer Emily Brontë mostly converting the period of her life before she wrote her novel Wuthering Heights . Gaby and Andreina talk about the cinematic representation of Emily as a historical character, Brontë’s relationshi...

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2022 Netflix movie The Wonder , based on the novel of the same name by Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue.  The movie, starring the brilliant Florence Pugh as a 19th-century nurse charged with observing a so-called “ fasting girl” in a rural town in Ireland in 1862, pushes against the limits of the period film genre and opens up conversations about s...

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the much-talked-about 2022 Austrian movie Corsage , which depicts a year in the life of Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi.  Mixing historical fact with imaginative interpretation, the film is a fascinating portrayal of this beloved Austrian icon, one that remains more a myth than a real person in the general imagination.  Gaby and Andreina also w...

We rarely find a more determined fictional female character in literature from the late 19th century than Bathsheba Everdeen.  Guided by a strong will and a deep-rooted desire to build her path while keeping her full independence, Bathsheba learns the hard way that love and companionship are still not that bad after all.  A film full of breathtaking landscapes, a plot with unexpected twists , and...

To open up our third season, Gaby and Andreina discuss the South Korean film The Handmaiden , directed by Park Chan-wook. Acclaimed by critics, this movie is a work of extraordinary vision from beginning to end: cinematography, performances, costume and set design, in addition to an incredibly well-written script–every detail of this film shows the highest ambition and achievement.  We hope you en...

What do you get when you take a pitch-perfect cast, beautiful but expressive cinematography, restraint but character-revealing costumes, and an inspired and poetic direction? The 2011 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, Jane Eyre!   Directed by then up-and-coming filmmaker Cary Fukunaga, it remains one of the most underrated period films of the last two decades.  Join us as we discuss...

“I’m gonna stand up, take my people with me, together we are going to a brand new home” – so sings Cyntia Erivo in the song “Stand Up,” the Academy Award nominated song for the film Harriet she co-wrote after playing the film’s leading role .   In their first review of an American film so far, Andreina and Gabriela discuss the 2019 film Harriet , which tells the story of the abolitionist and socia...

Oh, Emma! Got into trouble again?  Although she always meant good, Jane Austen’s Emma is known for stirring things up in her hometown while playing the matchmaker.  Set in the early 19th century, this all-time classic has been brought to the big screen in many ways, but which one is your favourite?  We couldn’t answer this question easily so we watched two versions and tried to make up our minds!...

Acclaimed by many as avant garde cinema and derided by others for being too frivolous, Sophia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,'' from 2006, offers indeed a lot to talk about! Starring an outstanding Kirsten Dunst, this Marie Antoinette is a woman full of passion, motherly love and sense of duty–perhaps a more sympathetic portrayal than we have seen in other films.   Either you love the colorful and lu...

In 1909, same-sex relationships were illegal in Great Britain and the consequences of being “caught” were heavy and, at times, catastrophic. Imagine yourself trapped in that situation of not being able to live your love and passion in freedom–without a doubt, a terrifying, soul-crushing feeling. The 1987 Merchant-Ivory film Maurice , based on the novel by the same name by E. M. Forster , gives us...

There is so much about this film that impacted us that we struggled to compact it all in one single conversation: The subtlety of the main love story: a love between equal-leveled minds and opposite characters. The delicacy of the cinematography that works as a piece of art on each frame of the movie. The smartness with which key elements were built in the story: femininity, women in art, working...