Brideshead Revisited, Revisited, and Revisited, Again

Brideshead Revisited, again one might say. I revisited it for the third time, being on the wrong (or right) side of forty to remember the TV series from the eighties.

For those who haven’t seen the TV series, or read the book, go see the film in cinema. It’s a good film. It’s not as good as the TV series, which was excellent, and both are not as good as the book, which is outstanding. Nonetheless, the film is worthwhile watching.

What really destroyed my enjoyment of the film was the fact that the story deviated considerably from the book. This doesn’t mean, the story in the film was bad, it’s just not the story Evelyn Waugh wrote. And the shadow of the TV series is a long one as well, so the actors have often been unfavourably compared to the TV actors of the eighties.

There is a scene where Sebastian and Charles kiss. It’s not in the book, it’s not in the TV series, and it’s not really necessary to the story told. To include it just for cheap gay gawking heterosexuals is demeaning to the film, and it had not earned that. The deviation with Julia in Venice and the kiss with Charles is not such a crass error. It might even have helped the story as told in the film. But the story in the film drops a lot of secondary roles which are not essential to the main story, but to the overall picture the book painted. I am not quite happy about it, but one is able to survive it.

The cast is unexceptional. Matthew Goode as Charles struggles against being just a reincarnation of Jeremy Irons, and loses most of the time. Ben Whishaw in contrast is not at all even comparable to Anthony Andrews as Sebastian. Whishaw, as one of the more unfriendly commentators wrote, makes Quentin Crisp look butch. He is so camp, he is boring. That Charles should transfer his feelings from Sebastian to Julia is no longer a wonder, it’s just a wonder what took him so long. In comparison it is quite clear, why Andrews received the best actor Bafta in 1981. His Sebastian hadn’t been gay or straight, it had been simply Sebastian Flyte, eccentric.

Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain is a find. She is one of the best actresses of our time, and in this film you can see why. Patrick Malahide manages to shake off the long shadow of Sir John Gielgud after a time and, dare one say it, is even better as the story progresses. Hayley Atwell as Julia is a bit too 21st century to really fit the part and can’t make us forget Diana Quick. And all the supporting roles are sadly lacking in colour and are cut down to mere nothings. Sad, but probably necessary to get everything into a normal length film.

Once you have seen the movie, go out and buy the DVD of the TV series. It is really worthwhile, and you will enjoy it even more as the film. Only after you have seen the series should you read the book, because even the series had to bend the story to fit a screen. Once you have gone through all that, tell me, if I was right, or if I was right.

When you think on it, 27 years is a long time. But still the TV series is casting its long shadow over the film. And if you ask me, was it really that good? Yes it was. Every minute of it was that good.