ABSTRACT
It is traditional to distinguish between history proper and the historical novel, a fiction written or located in the past. In filmic terms, there is a parallel distinction between the history film, which reconstructs documented events, and the costume film, which adapts historical or classic novels, but allows lavish and spectacular display to predominate over narrative content. Authors of historical novels and designers of costume films have often looked to writers of history proper as a way of guaranteeing historical authenticity. Although this is by no means the exclusive preserve of what critics in the 1990s have referred to as heritage film and television, it is certainly one of the defining features of such historical costume drama in that period.
