Topic: 16th Century

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Takashi Shimura · Yoshio Inaba · Seiji Miyaguchi

Plot Set in 16th Century Japan, Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' follows the plight of a defenseless farming village that lives in constant fear of marauding bandits. The farmers know that when...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Machiko Kyô · Mitsuko Mito · Kinuyo Tanaka · Masayuki Mori

Plot In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. The potter Genjuro intends to sell his wares for vast profits in the local...

Direction Sergei M. Eisenstein

Cast Nikolai Cherkasov · Serafima Birman · Ludmila Tselikovskaya · Mikhail Nazvanov

Plot Ivan returns to Moscow to discover that there are still conspiracies against him, even the Tsar's aunt wants to get rid of him. However, Ivan manages to foresee his enemies'...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai · Akira Terao · Jinpachi Nezu · Pîtâ

Plot A reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's 'King Lear'. The Lear counterpart is an elderly 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai), who announces that he's about to divide his kingdom equally among his three...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Isuzu Yamada · Takashi Shimura · Akira Kubo

Plot 'Macbeth' is reimagined as a samurai in feudal Japan. Taketoki Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) is a valiant warrior whose life is transformed by an encounter with a ghostly female spirit. The...

Direction Sergei M. Eisenstein

Cast Nikolai Cherkasov · Serafima Birman · Ludmila Tselikovskaya · Mikhail Nazvanov

Plot In 1547, Ivan IV (1530-1584), archduke of Moscow, crowns himself Tsar of Russia and sets about reclaiming lost Russian territory. In scenes of his coronation, his wedding to Anastasia, his...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai · Tsutomu Yamazaki · Kenichi Hagiwara · Daisuke Ryû

Plot In 16th century Japan, Shingen, a powerful warlord, has become as legendary as the motto emblazoned on his war banners: "Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as...

Direction Richard Curtis · Rowan Atkinson · Martin Shardlow · Geoff Posner

Cast Rowan Atkinson · Stephen Frost · Tim McInnerny · Tony Robinson

Plot TV Series (1983-1989). 4 Seasons. 25 Episodes. Set in England at the end of the War of the Roses, we soon find out that the history we know is a...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Minoru Chiaki · Misa Uehara · Takashi Shimura

Plot Princess Yuki Akizuki ("Yukihime" in Japanese) is to be led through enemy territory, where she may rebuild her kingdom with gold that she has in her caravan. She is assisted...

Direction Fred Zinnemann

Cast Paul Scofield · Wendy Hiller · Leo McKern · Robert Shaw

Plot The story takes place in 16th century England. But men like Sir Thomas More, who love life yet have the moral fiber to lay down their lives for their principles,...

Direction Israel del Santo

Cast Aitana Sánchez-Gijón · Eduardo San Juan · Nacho Acero · José Sisenando

Plot TV Miniseries (2019). 8 Episodes. A historical drama miniseries that tells the story of the first thirty years after Columbus' first voyage to the New World. It centers on 30...

Direction Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Plot Jubei is wandering noble sword for hire, but when a chance meeting leads him to save young ninja woman from rape he makes enemies with a group of demonic humans....

Direction Michael Hirst · Ciaran Donnelly · Jeremy Podeswa · Dearbhla Walsh

Cast Jonathan Rhys Meyers · Henry Cavill · James Frain · Natalie Dormer

Plot TV Series (2007-2010). 4 Seasons. 38 Episodes. 16th Century. King Henry VIII, the young and ambitious monarch of England, prepares for war with France but is dissuaded by the diplomatic...

Direction Werner Herzog

Cast Klaus Kinski · Helena Rojo · Del Negro · Ruy Guerra

Plot Herzog always said that right from their first encounter, he knew he would end up taking advantage of Kinski's turbulent personality. He was chosen to play choleric Aguirre, a character...

Direction Paul Wegener · Carl Boese

Cast Paul Wegener · Albert Steinrück · Lyda Salmonova · Ernst Deutsch

Plot In this version of the golem legend, the golem, a clay statue brought to life by Rabbi Loew in 16th century Prague to save the Jews from the ongoing brutal...

Direction Peter Kosminsky

Cast Mark Rylance · Damian Lewis · Claire Foy · Jonathan Pryce

Plot TV Miniseries (2015). 6 Episodes. England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war....

Direction Edouard David · Bernard Deyriès · Kenichi Murakami · Hisayuki Toriumi

Direction Mel Gibson

Cast Rudy Youngblood · Gerardo Taracena · Raoul Trujillo · Dalia Hernández

Plot A heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a...

Direction Giuliano Montaldo

Cast Gian Maria Volonté · Hans Christian Blech · Mathieu Carrière · Renato Scarpa

Plot Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was one of the pivotal thinkers of the Renaissance. A Dominican friar in Italy, he left the order and taught widely throughout Europe. Among the ideas he...

Direction Carol Reed

Cast Charlton Heston · Rex Harrison · Diane Cilento · Harry Andrews

Plot Pope Julius is eager to leave behind works by which he will be remembered. To this end he cajoles Michelangelo into painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When not...