Product: Brideshead Revisited [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 5.0
Beauty Is Truth, Truth Beauty
I believe this is the finest film ever made for television, and the best adaptation of a book, which it follows nearly word for word. It created a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, and every Monday night for nine weeks friends gathered to share strawberries and champagne while watching the story unfold. Sales of teddy bears skyrocketed. In a late triumph Laurence Olivier was awarded an Emmy, and it made an overnight star of a previously unknown Jeremy Irons. John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Stephane Audran added to the star power, Anthony Andrews' character of Sebastian Flyte became a cult figure, and Diana Quick, Phoebe Nichols, Simon Jones, Nickolas Grace, John Grillo, Charles Keating, and Mona Washbourne made one of the finest ensembles ever assembled. The film is an incisive portrait of England between the wars, following the privileged young generation of the 1920s through Oxford, London, Paris, Venice, and Morocco. Much was made of the homoerotic relationship between students Charles and Sebastian. But, surprisingly, "Brideshead Revisited" is above all a meditation on the Catholic Church, an attempt to understand its effect on both believers and agnostics. As they struggle outwardly to envision what the 20th Century may bring, we see their inward struggle to understand what personal meaning it has for them. I never tire of watching this story, which has many unexpected turns and a surfeit of beautiful moments. The musical score by Geoffrey Burgon is perfection, as is the script by John Mortimer and Charles Sturridge, and the latter's direction. Evelyn Waugh was a renowned cynic, but he was not unaware of the beauty around him.