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 biographical filmsas 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. 

Thomas S. Freeman is Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Essex, UK. He is the co-author ofReligion and the Book in Early Modern England: the Making of Foxes Book of Martyrs (2011).  He is also the co-editor ofThe Tudors and Stuarts on Film (2008), and four other volumes on early modern English history.

David L. Smith is Fellow, Director of Studies in History, and Graduate Tutor at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, UK.  His books includeConstitutional Royalism and the Search for Settlement, c. 1640-1649(1994), A History of the Modern British Isles, 1603-1707 (1998),The Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689 (1999), and (with Patrick Little) Parliaments and Politics during the Cromwellian Protectorate(2007).    

Movies that exist merely to tell entertaining lies?: Biography on Film; Thomas S. Freeman and David L. Smith.- Filming a Legend: Anthony Manns El Cid (1961); Thomas S. Freeman.- Joan of Arc through medieval eyes and modern lenses: Dreyer 1928 and Bresson 1962; Elisabeth van Houts.- Blood, lust and the Virgin Queen: Helen Mirrens Elizabeth I; William B. Robison.- Shakespeare in Love and Anonymous: Two Films More or Less About Shakespeare; David Bevington.- That Hamilton Woman (1941); Samantha A. Cavell.- Twelve Years a Slave and the Unthinkability of Enslaved Autobiography; Sean M. Kelley.- Abraham Lincoln and National Reconciliation in Lincoln; Kate Masur.- The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960); David L. Smith.- Infectious Enthusiasm: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936); Bart K. Holland.- Filming and Formatting the Explorer Hero: Captain Scott and Ealing Studios Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Klaus Dodds.- Inside JFKs White House: the Myth of John F. Kennedy and Thirteen Days (2000); Andrew Priest.- Power and its Loss in The Iron Lady; Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Jon Lawrence.- Index