redfiona99 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redfiona99) wrote2009-03-14 01:29 am
redfiona99) wrote2009-03-14 01:29 am
Brideshead and More
Okay, so I've also broken in the shoes for the wedding tomorrow. They're not painful, but I'm still going to take a pair of trainers with me anyway.
Bought Brideshead Revisited (the book) and Mort. Also rented the recent film. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be
The reason why they made Sebastian quite so jittery at the start is to compare to him at the end. It's like all the light and life have gone out of him.
I forgot how much I hate Lady Marchmain. She destroys all her family (possible exception being Cordelia) and then we're expected to feel sorry for her. Free will, woman, you had it. And I know it's as much Lord Marchmain's fault, but at least he doesn't expect to be pitied.
I hated Charles less than expected, possibly because shrinking the film down to two hours meant that some of his worse hours weren't shown, and certainly Celia wasn't ill next door when he had it off with Julia. And they could have been so happy if he hadn't been so proud. Yes, they definitely nice-ified Charles. Which I can kind of understand. Also, interestingly, they made Hooper a lot nicer, and without the wistful bit at the end where Charles realises that maybe Hooperland wouldn't be too bad, and that certain things never change (Nanny being the missing exemplar in this).
They kept the class thing. Which is good, and worked and a lot of the background roles were wonderfully well cast. The music sounded a lot like something (possibly The Piano) but it was beautifully shot.
I'm not sure I liked what they did with Anthony Blanche. They made him too gauche, and deepened him where he didn't need deepening. The whole point is that he's not obviously deep, his deep-ness, and his resistance to damage where Sebastian especially is not, is supposed to creep up on one.
I think the university scenes were the ones which worked least because they made Flyte's set far too reasonable. I seem to recall loathing Boy Mulcaster a lot more, which given I didn't like him in this is saying a lot.
I think they made Bridey too young. I've always assumed that he was reasonably older than Sebastian and Julia, old enough to have been damaged less by the separation between his parents (which is when Lady Marchmain became really obsessive), the same way Cordelia is young enough to not really remember it, hence why she too is carrying less baggage.
I think it missed two important scenes; the one with Cara describing Lord Marchmain's drinking, with the link that Sebastian never finds his Cara (the nearest being Nils, who is also nice-ified in this) and therefore doesn't ever stop and religion obsession is no substitute for love, and the one of Cordelia talking to Charles and straight up saying that she know he thinks she's a naive fool and she admits she is but she's sure of what she knows and generally Cordelia being awesome.
Because that's one of the things Waugh got across which this didn't so well, the difference between love and religion and love and religious obsession. Because Cara, Cordelia and, bless his boring, ineffectual and occasionally offensive socks, Bridey have both, while Sebastian, Julia and Lady Marchmain seem to have drawn the short straws.
Not bad, and worth a watch.
Bought Brideshead Revisited (the book) and Mort. Also rented the recent film. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be
The reason why they made Sebastian quite so jittery at the start is to compare to him at the end. It's like all the light and life have gone out of him.
I forgot how much I hate Lady Marchmain. She destroys all her family (possible exception being Cordelia) and then we're expected to feel sorry for her. Free will, woman, you had it. And I know it's as much Lord Marchmain's fault, but at least he doesn't expect to be pitied.
I hated Charles less than expected, possibly because shrinking the film down to two hours meant that some of his worse hours weren't shown, and certainly Celia wasn't ill next door when he had it off with Julia. And they could have been so happy if he hadn't been so proud. Yes, they definitely nice-ified Charles. Which I can kind of understand. Also, interestingly, they made Hooper a lot nicer, and without the wistful bit at the end where Charles realises that maybe Hooperland wouldn't be too bad, and that certain things never change (Nanny being the missing exemplar in this).
They kept the class thing. Which is good, and worked and a lot of the background roles were wonderfully well cast. The music sounded a lot like something (possibly The Piano) but it was beautifully shot.
I'm not sure I liked what they did with Anthony Blanche. They made him too gauche, and deepened him where he didn't need deepening. The whole point is that he's not obviously deep, his deep-ness, and his resistance to damage where Sebastian especially is not, is supposed to creep up on one.
I think the university scenes were the ones which worked least because they made Flyte's set far too reasonable. I seem to recall loathing Boy Mulcaster a lot more, which given I didn't like him in this is saying a lot.
I think they made Bridey too young. I've always assumed that he was reasonably older than Sebastian and Julia, old enough to have been damaged less by the separation between his parents (which is when Lady Marchmain became really obsessive), the same way Cordelia is young enough to not really remember it, hence why she too is carrying less baggage.
I think it missed two important scenes; the one with Cara describing Lord Marchmain's drinking, with the link that Sebastian never finds his Cara (the nearest being Nils, who is also nice-ified in this) and therefore doesn't ever stop and religion obsession is no substitute for love, and the one of Cordelia talking to Charles and straight up saying that she know he thinks she's a naive fool and she admits she is but she's sure of what she knows and generally Cordelia being awesome.
Because that's one of the things Waugh got across which this didn't so well, the difference between love and religion and love and religious obsession. Because Cara, Cordelia and, bless his boring, ineffectual and occasionally offensive socks, Bridey have both, while Sebastian, Julia and Lady Marchmain seem to have drawn the short straws.
Not bad, and worth a watch.