Brideshead Revisited

Having not read the novel by Evelyn Vaugh or watched the 1981 television series, it was the promise of a top British cast, in period costume, with spectacular British locations which attracted me to this film. Whilst Freshers’ were drinking their own weight in WKD, I was sat in a surprisingly empty cinema, looking forward to another British period drama but without someone pouting throughout it (mentioning no names).

Thankfully, I was not disappointed. Brideshead Revisited is told in a series of flashbacks and forwards by Captain Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode), who is stationed at Brideshead during World War Two. He recalls his time spent at Brideshead, an outsider seduced by the house, entangled into the aristocratic, Catholic Flyte family, in particular his intense involvement with siblings Julia and Sebastian.

For me it was Ben Whishaw who stood out with his performance as Sebastian, the effeminate, hedonistic but childlike toff who befriends middle- class Charles, after vomiting in his Oxford dorm. “All I want is to be happy, if I can”, sighs Sebastian at the beginning of the film. This should be his epitaph, summing up his desperation felt throughout the film.

Whishaw could have easily fallen into the trap of playing the role as a flamboyant fop but instead used subtle mannerisms, which helped make the audience of two (myself and the friend I dragged along with me) fall in love with the character through his downward spiral, fuelled by alcoholism and his infatuation with Charles. It was this relationship which I was more interested in, rather than the lukewarm storyline of Charles’ attraction to Sebastian’s God-fearing sister Julia.

Different from other period dramas, instead of class and society being the obstacle it is Catholicism which proves to dictate Sebastian’s life and cause the barrier between Julia and Charles. Although at times the Catholic motifs are over emphasised, with the camera zooming in on every cross and rosary bead in sight, this is a beautiful film. A poetically written and witty script, a stand up cast, where veterans Thompson and Gambon take a back seat and lesser known actors shine. I would recommend this period epic to any lovers of British film.

Kara Black