Foreign period dramas made in the 1970's..

[nandywell]

Good lord, thanks for all those recommendations, I'll have to trawl through them now and add them to my LoveFilm wishlist.

[Octave]

For Germany, in addition to the various Herzog titles that have been mentioned, you might try some Fassbinder. Effi Briest fits the bill of nineteenth-century aristocratic intrigue perfectly.

For Poland, you should definitely check out Wajda's stunning Promised Land, based on the novel by Reymont about the emergence of capitalism in an aristocratic society. Also, though it's not so really about aristocrats, you might consider Wajda's The Wedding, based on one of Poland's most famous plays, about a turn-of-the-twentieth-century wedding between a well-to-do and prominent poet and a peasant girl and the implications for Polish nationalsim.

In Russia, there's a good 1970 film of Uncle Vanya, though it may be tough to track down, and Chekhov isn't quite writing about the aristocracy. Similarly, in Sweden, Bergman's Cries and Whispers is about characters about at the level of Chekhov's, but it's stunning, and you shouldn't miss it.

In France, Truffaut made a number of period pieces in the 70s. They're not my favorite Truffaut, but some people love them. You might consider The Story of Adele H, about Victor Hugo's daughter. But again, it's not really aristocracy. If you're interested in later films by 70s directors, you might consider Rivette's recent The Duchess of Langeis (still playing in theaters in New York, but I don't know about the UK).

[Owlett]

Don't know if it's got that 70's quality you're after and like Mephisto it's from the 80's, but I'd most strongly recommend Szabo's Colonel Redl. Based on a Somerset Maugham novel, it follows the rise through the military of a working-class Ruthenian in the context of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian empire in the days before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the onset of WW1.

A great drama, it encompasses human frailty, racism, ambition, self-loathing, etc., and not least (as in the aforementioned Mephisto), a superlative performance by Klaus Maria Brandauer.