Product Description

Inspired by the best-selling novel, Brideshead Revisited is a riveting drama of forbidden love, power and betrayal, featuring stunning performances by Academy Award winner Emma Thompson (Best Actress, Howard s End, 1992) and Matthew Goode (The Lookout). When the charming aristocrat Sebastian invites Charles Ryder to his family's estate, Charles becomes seduced by the opulent lifestyle of the Marchmain family, and by Julia, Sebastian's sister. As their romance deepens, repercussions follow, and Charles discovers that at Brideshead, love, money and power come at a price. It's a spellbinding story you'll want to revisit again and again. Bonus Features include Deleted Scenes
Filmmakers' Audio Commentary
The World Of Brideshead Featurette

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11121 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2009-01-13
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 133 minutes

Features

• Inspired by the best-selling novel, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is a riveting drama of love, power and betrayal, featuring stunning performances by Academy Award(R) winner Emma Thompson (Best Actress, HOWARDS END, 1992) and Matthew Goode (THE LOOKOUT). When the charming aristcrat Sebastian invites Charles Ryder to his family's estate, Charles becomes seduced by the opulent lifestyle of the Marchmain fami

Amazon.com
For director Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane), this sumptuous production represents a two-fold challenge: taking on a classic novel and a celebrated television production (Brideshead Revisited premiered on PBS in 1982). Thankfully, he's up to the task. Adapted by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice) and Jeremy Brock (Mrs. Brown), Evelyn Waugh's 1945 text tracks the hard-won maturation of artist-turned-soldier Charles Ryder (Match Point's Matthew Goode). At the optimistic outset, the middle-class striver enters Oxford where he meets Sebastian Flyte (Perfume's Ben Whishaw), black-sheep scion of the Catholic Marchmain clan. Through his hedonistic friend, Ryder gets to know Flyte's sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell), and the dynamic changes. Were this a Jane Austen adaptation, Ryder's financial shortcomings would present the biggest obstacle, but the indomitable Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson, cast against type) concentrates her disapproval on Ryder's atheism. Sebastian, on the other hand, wants Charles for himself; his drinking accelerates once he realizes Ryder loves Julia more. As World War I gives way to II, Ryder tangles with the Marchmains until forced to choose between freedom and compromise. In the end, comparing a two-hour movie to a 12-hour series makes as much sense as comparing a drawing to a sculpture. Both qualify as art, but one reveals more dimensions than the other. Like the series, Jarrold's narrative loses some steam once the focus shifts from Sebastian to Julia, but Goode's deft performance as Charles Ryder is just as riveting as that of Jeremy Irons before him. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Stills from Brideshead Revisited (Click for larger image)

Review
Plush and passionate and graced with elegant performances. Best is that of Emma Thompson as Brideshead's matriarch... - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
Clever writing, strong performances and sumptuous production design make for a rich experience - Claudia Puig, USA Today
Offers lush and compelling drama drawn from Evelyn Waugh's beloved novel. - Dennis Harvey, Variety
Often powerful, though presented throughout with British understatement.-Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer --National Reviews

Customer Reviews

Brideshead, Revisited With Reservations
Any film of Brideshead Revisited will inevitably be compared with the 1981 mini-series, and will suffer from the comparison. Evelyn Waugh's novel was so rich and detailed that any attempt to depict it in a mere 2 hours or so will be wanting. I am a fan of the mini-series, which I have watched countless times, and I want to make it clear that there are many things about this version that I find very appealing: the use of Castle Howard, the fine acting by Michael Gambon, Emma Thompson, Hayley Atwell, Ben Whishaw, and Matthew Goode, and the beautiful sets and costumes.

Unfortunately the need to compress the story distorts much of what Evelyn Waugh intended. By making the love affairs between Charles Ryder and Sebastian and Julia Flyte occur nearly simultaneously instead of Charles first loving Sebastian and then years later falling in love with Julia, Waugh's message of spiritual and emotional growth is blunted. More troubling is the lack of positive emphasis on Christianity and Roman Catholicism. Whereas in the book and the mini-series Lady Marchmain is a tragic, sympathetic figure, the film emphasizes her hauteur and coldness. This has larger immplications than just a difference in interpretation, since Lady Marchmain in large part represents the Church. Furthermore, I am especially disappointed by the ending. In the book and mini-series we see an affirmation of both new and enduring faith, while the film is far more equivocal.

Despite these reservations, I do value this film and intend to watch it many times. While Waugh himself would be horrified over some of the modifications (he would call them distortions), this new interpretation of his work is beautiful in its own right, and its ambiguities are a challenge which allows us to re-examine our own beliefs.

You don't want to revisit this Brideshead
When I first heard of this film I found it hard to imagine how anyone could succeed in cramming the complex narrative of Brideshead Revisited into the 120 minute format that seems to be the norm for cinema these days, maybe as a favour to audiences suffering from attention deficit disorder. Still, I didn't expect much from Pride & Prejudice the movie, yet found myself enjoying that pretty well, so I took my chances with Brideshead too. But this time the experience was rather less satisfying, to put it mildly.

For someone familiar with the large, intricate, subtly tinted canvases of Waugh's book and the phenomenal TV-series, this is like seeing a hasty copy executed in crude strokes and garish colours. Within 20 minutes from the start Charles and Sebastian aren't just friends, they actually appear to be lovers. The gay thing is plastered on way too thick and goes far beyond anything suggested by Waugh. The way the storyline is distorted, it makes it seems as if Sebastian starts drinking out of frustration over Charles's rejection of him in favour of his sister Julia. This is a result of the extreme conflation of elements from Waugh's story, which uproots its refined psychological dynamics. Indeed, subtlety is nowhere to be found; the Flytes in this movie are a pretty vulgar bunch, and Sebastian's Oxford circle too has none of the aristocratic manners and sophisticated wit we would expect from them.

There are in this film many more scenes that made me cringe than in any movie I recently watched: the Flytes gathering around a statue of the Virgin Mary, singing the Salve Regina; Lady Marchmain coming to the house of Charles's father and throwing an emotional scene; all appearances of Anthony Blanch, period (mercifully limited to only two); Charles buying Julia from Mottram for a few paintings; Sebastian making a scene at his sister's coming out ball; et cetera.

The casting doesn't help. Matthew Goode is a likeable Charles Ryder, but way too mature and confident, with the added problem of him being rather more handsome than Sebastian, who is played by the gaunt, scary-looking Ben Wishaw. Wishaw completely misses out on the complicated combination of superiority and vulnerability in Sebastian's deeply troubled character, indeed, seems to spend most of his screentime throwing fond looks at Charles (which is just about the reverse of what happens in the original story). Hayley Atwell's Julia lacks any sense of grandeur or style, and is reduced to little more than a petulant schoolgirl; I couldn't for the life of me imagine why Charles would fall in love with her, there is no chemistry at all between the characters. I'm sure Emma Thompson could have made something wonderful out of Lady Marchmain had she been given the right lines, but alas; here she is just a gorgon, who, like others characters too, may surprise you by suddenly going psychotherapist, explaining to Charles that he is so desperate to be liked. None of the subtle emotional blackmail that Claire Bloom so masterfully weaved into her performance in the series. Most other characters could have been dispensed with altogether; with their organic ties to the story severed, figures like Blanche, Ryder's father, Boy Mulcaster, cousin Jasper, Cordelia, Samgrass, or Celia make mere token appearances.

So what you are left with is a bunch of fairly good-looking, nicely dressed people cavorting in attractive surroundings. No cliché is spared. We don't just go to Venice, no, of course it has to be the Carnival and the Lido. Castle Howard is always a pleasure to look at but hardly an original choice (and I don't understand by the life of me why everybody is constantly arriving at and departing from the garden front - maybe so as not to disturb the business of tourism? We do not once see the other side. The house was used much more fully in the TV-series.) Surprisingly, the series despite its 4:3 ratio generally has a far more cinematic feel to it than this film, which often looks made-for-TV. No doubt some will argue that such comparisons are unfair and the film should be judged on its own merits alone; I disagree. Right up to the final scene, the entire point of Waugh's story is lost. Anyone who films the work of a great author takes on a responsibility towards that work, and the makers of this film have definitely failed in that regard, i.e., they just mangled it.

An Abomination. A Hate Crime. Demonic Possession of a Great Work of Art.
Many cinematic adaptations of famous novels fail miserably because of poor casting, bad acting, horrible scripts, or a general inability to capture the spirit of the book, all of which are true about this adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. However, I have never before seen a movie which has deliberately and maliciously perverted the core message- the very soul- of its source material, as this movie does. "Brideshead Revisited- 2009" is an abomination. It is an artistic and spiritual obscenity that deserves utter oblivion. Let it be anathema.

Evelyn Waugh, a Catholic convert, wrote a novel steeped in very Catholic ideas of sin and redemption, with its main theme being the operation of Divine Grace upon the soul. This putrid and dishonest movie has utterly discarded the central theme of the book and replaced it with a tawdry bisexual love triangle and anti-religious agitprop. This movie resembles the story we know only in outward appearance- the names of characters, certain locales and plot superficialities- but it is a gutted structure; its very heart and soul have been removed and replaced with something vile.

The scriptwriters were quite honest in their intentions. They announced that God would be the villain of the story, and religious guilt its theme. To be sure, I don't recall ever having seen a movie animated by such naked anti-Catholic hatred. Lady Marchmain, a figure of Mother Church in the novel, is portrayed here as a diabolic cult leader, a dead-eyed, heartless monster who robotically spews Church dogma and controls her family through manipulation of their religious feelings. In this movie, Julia's conscience was aroused not by grace but only because she was indoctrinated when she was young. Sebastian conducts a pantomime Eucharistic celebration with Charles. Charles' conversion isn't even acknowledged. One anti-Catholic diatribe follows another. When even Christopher Hitchens says that the movie was "motivated by the cheaper sort of malice" against Catholicism, you know that what you're witnessing is a bona fide hate crime.

To give one example of how mendaciously this movie has perverted the novel's original intent, take the dialogue between Cara and Charles about how much Lord Marchmain hates his wife - here's the book: "And how has she deserved all this hate? She has done nothing except be loved by someone who was not grown-up...She is a good and simple woman who has been loved in the wrong way. When people hate with all that energy, it is something in themselves they are hating. Alex is hating all the illusions of boyhood-innocence, God, hope. Poor Lady Marchmain has to bear all that." Now, the movie: "That woman nearly suffocated him...Just look at her children. Even when they were tiny in the nursery they must do what she want them to do, be what she want them to be, only then would she love them. It's not Lady Marchmain fault. Her God has done that to her."

The movie tells us that if not for religion, Sebastian could be a happy homosexual, Julia and Charles could enjoy their adulterous relationship and Lord Marchmain could divorce his wife. To the scriptwriters, as to their modern audience, the idea that guilt may be a natural and salutary reaction to sin is completely foreign. For we in the West live among a pullulating mass of spiritual barbarians (and I mean spiritual in the broadest sense): not so much nihilistic as just morally retarded. They are shiny, one-dimensional bipeds, mere simulacra of human beings, who never even possessed a faith that they could reject. Marinated in the shabbiest materialism and various trendy theories of self-esteem, the plastic generations of the past few decades grew up to hold one, enduring core value: narcissism. If previous generations of atheists declared that Man is the Measure of All Things, these empty, tattooed husks who fill the schools and are starting to enter into positions of power, declare that_I_Am the Measure of All Things. Even the pagans valued the cultivation of the higher sensibilities- aesthetics, ethics, philosophy- but these savages whom the West has nurtured in its bosom are unable to grasp any concept beyond that of physical comfort- never mind Truth or Beauty! Incapable of even "sinning boldly", they go about joylessly gratifying the banal impulses of consumerism. Ignorant of where they came from, unaware of where they're going and barely cognizant of where they are now, they are the audience for Brideshead Revisited-2009.

Because of that, I'm afraid the anti-religious message was probably wasted on an audience who's never known God in the first place. I could just see them watching this movie, their senses momentarily diverted by vivid scenery and semi-attractive people, but their dull minds in a state of perplexity, as if faced with the inexplicable taboos of a primitive tribe: "God? Who? Sin? What? Guilt? Huh?".

As for the rest of it, this movie fails in every respect. The "epicene beauty" Sebastian looks like an angry gnome and minces about in revoltingly queenly style. Charles resembles a gormless halibut. The "Byronic" Lord Marchmain (played by Dumbledore from Harry Potter) looks and acts like a plumber. Julia has all the grace and charm of a reality show contestant who lifts her top for the cameras. And worst of all, Evelyn Waugh's absolutely exquisite prose was replaced with the most insipid and nonsensical dialogue that the products of modern government education factories could churn out. If you possess a modicum of good taste, or intelligence, or a spark of the Divine, I warn you not to waste your time or soil yourself with this trash.