Product: Brideshead Revisited [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 5.0
One of the Top 5 of the Mini-Series Genre
The description above is not quite accurate. Charles Ryder, played by Jeremy Irons is not from "no money". Indeed, he is quite well off by today's standards. It may seem however, in comparison to Sebastian Flyte, that he is of little consequence socially or financially. Sebastian Flyte, to the parochial manor born, has family history and wealth dating back to William the Conqueror. Brideshead, the family holding, is quite magnificent, and thoroughly fit for a king - a Catholic King - thus making the Marchmaine Clan unique among English aristocracy.The author, Evelyn Waugh, like his central character, Charles Ryder, became a convert to Roman Catholicism, providing his novel its focus. While at University, Charles is besotted by Sebastian and later falls deeply in love with Julia, Sebastien's sister. By so doing, he becomes deeply entrenched among the Marchmaines and the drama surrounding its Matriarch the pious & controlling, Lady Marchmaine and her estranged husband, living abroad in Italy with his Mistress.Brideshead & Lady Marchmaine, as symbols for the Roman Catholic faith, are struggled against, bemoaned, abandoned, denied, but each character in his turn will return penitant to the fold.Although the theme is "religion", a drama taking place during the hedonistic post war years could not do without a large dose of the secular world with its sexuality, homosexuality, infidelity, drug addiction. No worries here, this series displays it warts and all.The acting is top notch: Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier are all at the top of their game