please to rec

[aphrodite_mine]

Okay, I need help. 

Not like I have any time to watch or read things, like, at all, but my brain keeps obsessing and I'm more inclined to feed it than try and divert interest. 

I need, need, need pretty much ANY good historical thing with canon f/f romance and/or strong implications thereof. Please give me reasons to research old fashioned underpants.

Not willing to sit through, for example, five main dude characters for two seconds of femslash - though if it is quality enough I might be swayed. Aggressive heterosexuality is less offensive if women are the main characters. My examples below skew really white and western, but I'm definitely open to things that are NOT that as long as I can access the material. Era is flexible, but ideally pre-70s. Pretty much any genre also welcome, bonus for horror, thriller or psychodrama, but definitely not required.

Yes
- Sarah Waters
- Emma Donoghue
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire
- The Nevers
- Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
- Frida
- The Color Purple
- The Favorite

Borderline
- Mad Men
- Rome

On My List of Probably-Should-Watch/Probably-Would-Enjoy
- The Blechley Circle
- Call the Midwife
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (TV)
- Lizzie
- Benedetta

Comments

[gloss]

I haven't seen it, because Dominic West repulses me, but what about Colette (2018)? I love its director a lot.

eta: to read, there is of course also Shimmer and The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman, both of which are set in the late 40s/50s

[senmut]

Hmm. My first thought was Black Sails for the femslash there, but there's a lot of het and manslash too.

[lilacsigil]

The Bletchley Circle only briefly has canon f/f romance but it has a ton of great female characters doing things entirely unrelated to het romance, and only one character is particularly involved in a het relationship (with her husband).

The Handmaiden is definitely psychodrama and definitely f/f, based on Fingersmith by Sarah Waters but transposed to occupied 1930s Korea.

[marginalia]

Love Bletchley & Call the Midwife! Bletchley reminds me, did you ever read Code Name Verity? The audiobook is also v good.

Call the Midwife also has canonical f/f and is just generally great. Season 10 is hitting Netflix soon and I cannot wait. I do cry during every single episode, though whether it's sad tears or happy tears varies. Sometimes both. It's really satisfying.

Benedetta is pretty ridiculous but not as camp as I'd wanted. Charlotte Rampling repeatedly made me cackle out loud in the theater though.

Couple of Mirrors is on Prime (I think still, if not, YouTube). Republican era China, based on a manhua, & theoretically de-gayed, but lol nice try guys. Uneven, but I was so thrilled to have a double female lead after all the BL.

[kore]

Ooh what about Dickinson? Three or four seasons I think, and it was streaming, and kind of deliberately gleefully anachronistic but pretty fun. Starring Hailee Steinfeld pre-MCU, definite canon F/F. And more recently, Carol (2015). I haven't been able to see it but I know a lot of people liked Gentleman Jack.

I know I have more recs but I felt like shit all day re a sinus/tooth infection so my brain is blank. Bound is awesome! The Hunger is even older but even more classic. The BBC? adaptations of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and Fingersmith were also really good. Most of the other recs I can think of right now are OLD now but not historical (Imagine Me & You!....no fancy underwear in that one).

[minoanmiss]

_The Handmaiden_ is a gorgeous movie set in Japan-occupied Korea of the 1930s. There is some (stymied) het but the main and glorious love story is f/f .

It's based on Sarah Waters' _Fingersmith_. Content advisory: there is a scene of book destruction but even I, a thoroughgoing bibliophile, cheered by that point in the story.

[scintilla10]

I really love Bletchley Circle and Call the Midwife! General +1 to reccing them/checking them out. However, as a word of caution, if your main interest is the canon f/f content, that is NOT the focus of either of these shows ... The main cast of both focuses on women and not dudes, though!

Have you watched Yellowjackets? (1 season so far, 10 episodes.) It only barely counts as historical, haha; there are two timelines, one of which is set in the 90s and one of which is contemporary. It's got excellent horror/thriller elements, and several queer lady characters, including one of the main characters.

Edited to add: I also really loved Gentleman Jack!