Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Country: GB/US/IT/MOR
Technical: col/Panavision 133m
Director: Julian Jarrold
Cast: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi
Synopsis:
Middle class student Charles Ryder falls in with the Roman Catholic Flyte family through his friendship with Sebastian, and finds his relationship with son and daughter places him at odds with their staunchly religious mother.
Review:
Ravishing palimpsest of the novel and Thames TV series, boasting an actor who even looks and sounds like Jeremy Irons. On the whole it ticks most of the boxes but one does finds oneself longing for the leisurely pace of the series, with Irons's voiceover and Burgon's music (here a piano is used to somewhat lesser effect). The love affair with Julia is granted so much more significance that it even overarches the film via a flashback structure and, captivating though Hayley Atwell is, she is surely not the only reason for the bitter-sweet remembrance occasioned by Charles's wartime visit to Brideshead. On the other hand the guilt-edged brand of Roman Catholicism embodied by the Flyte family is better captured than I remember, and well contrasted with the Italian version summed up by Lord Marchmain's mistress.
Country: GB/US/IT/MOR
Technical: col/Panavision 133m
Director: Julian Jarrold
Cast: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi
Synopsis:
Middle class student Charles Ryder falls in with the Roman Catholic Flyte family through his friendship with Sebastian, and finds his relationship with son and daughter places him at odds with their staunchly religious mother.
Review:
Ravishing palimpsest of the novel and Thames TV series, boasting an actor who even looks and sounds like Jeremy Irons. On the whole it ticks most of the boxes but one does finds oneself longing for the leisurely pace of the series, with Irons's voiceover and Burgon's music (here a piano is used to somewhat lesser effect). The love affair with Julia is granted so much more significance that it even overarches the film via a flashback structure and, captivating though Hayley Atwell is, she is surely not the only reason for the bitter-sweet remembrance occasioned by Charles's wartime visit to Brideshead. On the other hand the guilt-edged brand of Roman Catholicism embodied by the Flyte family is better captured than I remember, and well contrasted with the Italian version summed up by Lord Marchmain's mistress.
Country: GB/US/IT/MOR
Technical: col/Panavision 133m
Director: Julian Jarrold
Cast: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi
Synopsis:
Middle class student Charles Ryder falls in with the Roman Catholic Flyte family through his friendship with Sebastian, and finds his relationship with son and daughter places him at odds with their staunchly religious mother.
Review:
Ravishing palimpsest of the novel and Thames TV series, boasting an actor who even looks and sounds like Jeremy Irons. On the whole it ticks most of the boxes but one does finds oneself longing for the leisurely pace of the series, with Irons's voiceover and Burgon's music (here a piano is used to somewhat lesser effect). The love affair with Julia is granted so much more significance that it even overarches the film via a flashback structure and, captivating though Hayley Atwell is, she is surely not the only reason for the bitter-sweet remembrance occasioned by Charles's wartime visit to Brideshead. On the other hand the guilt-edged brand of Roman Catholicism embodied by the Flyte family is better captured than I remember, and well contrasted with the Italian version summed up by Lord Marchmain's mistress.