Video & Commentary: "Brideshead Reinterpreted"?

Evelyn Waugh's catholic novel Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorites. It was made into an excellent (11+ hour!) movie by Granada Films in 1982.

Awhile back I found out that the story was being retold in a theatrical release. A friend of mine put it best when he said the new telling reminded him more of a fan fiction movie with the original characters, than a dramatization of the actual storyline.

Josh Walsh of the Independent agrees with that assesment, and gives us the dissapointing details:

First, Sebastian and Julia appear to be conducting an incestuous relationship that becomes a ménage a trois with Charles. Second, Julia shows up, under a parasol, in the Venice scenes. Third, Lady Marchmain seems concerned only with marrying off her daughter to the cluelessly non-Catholic Rex. Fourth, there's a wildly misconceived strand of sexual intrigue, most fatuously when Lord Marchmain leans back on a sofa with one arm around a coquettish Julia and the other around a pouting Sebastian and twinkles at Charles with the words: "What a lot of temptation..." Fifth, the religious theme is hinted at only by a dropped crucifix. Sixth, Sebastian shouts: "You never wanted me – you used me to get to my sister!" (In the book, by the time Charles and Julia get it together at sea, Sebastian has vanished into alcoholism and a monastery in Morocco.)

All this is shocking for Waugh purists. The message board on the IMDb website is a-twitter with denunciations by Waugh fans. "Andrew Davies needs a reality check," reads one. "And a slap in the face like he's given to Evelyn Waugh by turning his masterpiece into a cheap romantic farce."

For the strong of stomach, here is the movie's theatrical trailer:



Really, Emma Thompson should know better than to involve herself in such a travesty.

Ph/t: Carl Olson at Ignatius Scoop.