Brideshead revisited

[jack]

On Friday evening, sonic and I went to see Brideshead Revisited. Writing Evelyn Waugh so it has the right mix between humour and tragedy is always really difficult, even for, you know, Evelyn Waugh. Who's read Brideshead Revisited? I'd read a couple of other Waugh, but not that one.

The first third

The first third was really enjoyable. There is humour with astounding finesse; nothing that could be construed specifically as a joke, yet with the right turn of phrase or brief pause has the whole cinema giggling.

The last two-thirds

The last two-thirds were rather more top-heavy than I'd normally want to see on a Friday night. Although I think I was fortunate to be just at a point where I did appreciate the questions raised; Charles' love-hate relationship with Brideshead, and the Brideshead family's love-hate relationship with Catholicism, and that Charles has up to three epic romances in his twenties, chewing up Brideshead as much as it chews him up, and only when he's got to about thirty does he start to see it all in perspective, which is the end of the film.

Did I mention, it did flashbacks well, mainly by having a snippet at the start, and then replaying most of it at the appropriate point. This seems to work very well, since the difference between what you knew the first time, and what you know the second time, points up all of the important things.

Comments

[scribb1e.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the film, but I found the same thing with the book. It starts off as this elegant comedy about Oxford life and teddy bears and so on, and then quickly gets into deeper, darker waters. I actually didn't finish reading it because at the time I was in the mood for the former and not the latter. Maybe I should try again.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It starts off as this elegant comedy about Oxford life and teddy bears and so on, and then quickly gets into deeper, darker waters. I actually didn't finish reading it because at the time I was in the mood for the former and not the latter

:) Yeah. I commented to Sonic about the duality of the film that I hadn't read the book, but from what else I'd read, I'd bet large amounts of money that it was inspired directly from it, not any sort of artefact of the adaption :)

On the other hand, I have to wonder, is it _actually_ like that, or in ten years time would I see the second half as ironically witty as I see the first half now, but don't think think I would have done ten years ago? I suspect not, but I can't know for sure.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Had you read any other Waugh? I was introduced to Scoop by my parents (which if you haven't read it is a frothy satire, and generally hilarious reading), and bogged down a bit when I picked up some others that were a mix of satire and despair.

[minipoppy.livejournal.com]

I've read it a couple of times and loved it. I also loved the 80s BBC version. I was very excited about seeing this at the film festival with a Q&A with the director, but so excited was I, I forgot to book any tickets until too late!
Quism since sent this review to me, and now I'm not sure whether I want to see it or not now. Would you recommend it on its merits, separate from the book?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/27/evelynwaugh.fiction

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, I wish you would, just so I'd know what you thought :) I've not read the original or seen any other adaptions, so I don't have anything to compare it to; I expect that review was fairly accurate.

I'd recommend it to someone who liked that sort of thing, but wasn't aware of brideshead. But it's not like films that just do something completely different to the premise of the original, and you can just pretend they're unrelated; whether you think it's how waugh ought to be or a travesty, I think it's definitely colouring your impression of that book.

(They're right that the Catholicism is portrayed very cuttingly. I very much sympathised with all of the Catholic characters, but if you haven't read the book, the message did look like it was supposed to be "religion fucks you up". I hope that's because the original portrayal is sufficiently human you can see it in different ways, but I don't know how someone who liked the book would see it.)

(Do you two want to come by for the party tonight? :))

[minipoppy.livejournal.com]

Ah that's a shame, I'd like to know more people in Cambridge so I'd've probably come if I'd read that earlier (and possibly stood in the corner hiding coyly behind my hair!) Well, I hope you had a nice time.

I definately will watch Brideshead at some point - I'm not such a Waugh purist that I'll point out, or notice, all the changes from the book. It would be hard not to compare it to the BBC version though - that was brilliant.