The essays in this volume seek to analyze biographical films as representations of historical
individuals and the times in which they lived. To do this contributors examine the context in
which certain biographical films were made including the state of knowledge about their
subjects at that moment and what these films reveal about the values and purposes of those who
created them. This is an original approach to biographical (as opposed to historical) films and
one that has so far played little part in the growing literature on historical films. The films
discussed here date from the 1920s to the 2010s and deal with males and females in periods
ranging from the Middle Ages to the end of the twentieth century. In the process the book
discusses how biographical films reflect changing attitudes towards issues such as race gender
and sexuality and examines the influence of these films on popular perceptions of the past.
The introduction analyses the nature of biographicalfilms as a genre: it compares and contrasts
the nature of biography on film with written biographies and considers their relationship with
the discipline of history. As the first collection of essays on this popular but understudied
genre this book will be of interest to historians as well as those in film and cultural
studies.
