Brideshead Revisited (Julian Jarrold, 2008) novel by Evelyn Waugh; Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi
It's impossible not to compare this with the 1981 television series, with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. Goode and Irons are interchangeable, while Whishaw and Andrews' performances render the two productions quite different. Helped by the one being eleven episodes long – while the other gets it done in two and a bit hours – the film has a greater intensity, despite two knights of the theatre being in the cast of the TV show. Waugh was intensely interested, as a convert to Catholicism, in closeness to the divine. Sebastian's exile therefrom, and Marchmain's dying return to it are central moments, rounded out by the final scene.
Garry Gillard | New: 3 July, 2023 | Now: 3 July, 2023