Brideshead was so beautiful and filled with emotional pain about characters who are uber, uber rich but have no empathy, sympathy or love inside of them at all.
@willx9352 in the book and the series, she's both controlling and manipulative. You can excuse this fictional character',s faults because of her Catholicism if you wish, but that's how she's written and that's how she is acted.
@ I think she is all of these. The question is not about ‘excusing’ but understanding the wider religious and social contexts in which this novel was wtitten. The novel is a sophisticated apologia for Catholicism, written by a Catholic author. Part of the issue being discussed is worldly happiness versus eternal happiness. The intention of the author is clear, eternal happiness can come at the cost of worldly happiness and Lady Marchmain knew this and her ‘manipulations’ were in the service of her faith. Both Charles and Julia came to see this. You are entitled to disagree with this authorial point of view and therefore judge Lady Marchmain harshly. I think the author’s intention is for us to view Lady Marchmain through the eyes of Charles, who of course, at the start of the novel saw her as some sort of monster. This would have been the contemporary view of society of people such as Lady Marchmain. The fact that Charles converts at the end of the novel and renounces worldly happiness might lead us to think that Charles may have come to a different understanding of her character. Of course, this is all wildly unfashionable these days. Thank goodness the series remained faithful to the authorial intention, where the Hollywood movie was a total travesty.
The British television created a series of powerful, erudite, and moving works on budgets that would not cover an American Car Commercial, and using stories that Hollywood would knowingly not touch with a ten foot pole, i.e. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Upstairs Downstairs, and perhaps their greatest work Brideshead Revisited. This is a emotionally powerful pseudo-homosexual young relationship between two deep innocents, and at the same time, a microscopic look into English class system, society, education, aristocracy and very old wealth. Wonderful story created by Evelyn Waugh published in 1945, screenplay by John Mortimer, Evelyn Waugh and Derek Granger, brilliantly acted, and a moving score to exquisitely match each scene. It is too powerful to watch over, and over. Once can be enough, but never forgotten.
I agree with your excellent assessment. As for the British miniseries, I believe that era is over and has been for quite a long time. I have one comment: I thought Charles and Sebastian were in an actual "relationship," perhaps short-lived, but not pseudo-homosexual. BTW, I want to add to your list: the Dorothy Sayers mysteries and "I Claudius."
As a child I used to like Cordelia. But really she’s repellent. So much droning on about how holy Sebastian is, and yet the poor suicidal governess is just a joke to her!
I do not recall Sebastian's fate as being quite so grim in the source novel. I think our old friend Sir John Mortimer made the character's offscreen life more dismal for the sake of enhancing the melodrama of the ending. More than one university don suggested to me that Mr. Waugh's ending (of a Roman Catholic "Sanctifying Grace" healing all of his broken characters) as a true deus ex machina. I'm half in agreement.
If you do not recall this, then you do not recall the book as well as you think you do. The novel is divided into books with their own numbered chapters, and almost every word that Cordelia says can be found verbatim in Chapter 4 of Book 3. In fact, Cordelia's words are an abridged version of what she says in the novel, and the full story has even more grim details. Your university dons are also mistaken in their suggestions, as the idea of grace is not suddenly introduced at the end of the book, but rather runs through it, and all the broken characters are not "healed', if you mean that fates you have already called "grim" suddenly turn into happy endings of a different sort.
Waugh’s prose is magnificent. When it is acted this wonderfully its full magic is clear.
Brideshead was so beautiful and filled with emotional pain about characters who are uber, uber rich but have no empathy, sympathy or love inside of them at all.
Actually, they are full of Love, sympathy, & love, under indescribable pressure to never express it.
@@rickstersherpanot lady Marchmain
@DanBeech-ht7sw A very difficult question to answer. This may seem to be true for people who do not believe, but not true for those who do.
@willx9352 in the book and the series, she's both controlling and manipulative. You can excuse this fictional character',s faults because of her Catholicism if you wish, but that's how she's written and that's how she is acted.
@ I think she is all of these. The question is not about ‘excusing’ but understanding the wider religious and social contexts in which this novel was wtitten. The novel is a sophisticated apologia for Catholicism, written by a Catholic author. Part of the issue being discussed is worldly happiness versus eternal happiness. The intention of the author is clear, eternal happiness can come at the cost of worldly happiness and Lady Marchmain knew this and her ‘manipulations’ were in the service of her faith. Both Charles and Julia came to see this. You are entitled to disagree with this authorial point of view and therefore judge Lady Marchmain harshly. I think the author’s intention is for us to view Lady Marchmain through the eyes of Charles, who of course, at the start of the novel saw her as some sort of monster. This would have been the contemporary view of society of people such as Lady Marchmain. The fact that Charles converts at the end of the novel and renounces worldly happiness might lead us to think that Charles may have come to a different understanding of her character. Of course, this is all wildly unfashionable these days. Thank goodness the series remained faithful to the authorial intention, where the Hollywood movie was a total travesty.
The British television created a series of powerful, erudite, and moving works on budgets that would not cover an American Car Commercial, and using stories that Hollywood would knowingly not touch with a ten foot pole, i.e. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Upstairs Downstairs, and perhaps their greatest work Brideshead Revisited. This is a emotionally powerful pseudo-homosexual young relationship between two deep innocents, and at the same time, a microscopic look into English class system, society, education, aristocracy and very old wealth. Wonderful story created by Evelyn Waugh published in 1945, screenplay by John Mortimer, Evelyn Waugh and Derek Granger, brilliantly acted, and a moving score to exquisitely match each scene. It is too powerful to watch over, and over. Once can be enough, but never forgotten.
One of the most magnificent satire of Hollywood is Waugh's "The Love One."
I agree with your excellent assessment. As for the British miniseries, I believe that era is over and has been for quite a long time. I have one comment: I thought Charles and Sebastian were in an actual "relationship," perhaps short-lived, but not pseudo-homosexual. BTW, I want to add to your list: the Dorothy Sayers mysteries and "I Claudius."
One of the most pivotal scenes in the novel. Charles is just starting to get an inkling of God's grace.
,"no-one is truly holy without suffering"
Trite, and not a rule at all
One of the most beautiful television series ever made. A marvelous reflection on the complexity of human emotions.
As a child I used to like Cordelia. But really she’s repellent. So much droning on about how holy Sebastian is, and yet the poor suicidal governess is just a joke to her!
The thing is that she is totally aware of what might seem to be 'repellent' aspects of her character.
BRH -one of English prose's greatest works.
“thwarted”
What was that ending 😂?
I do not recall Sebastian's fate as being quite so grim in the source novel. I think our old friend Sir John Mortimer made the character's offscreen life more dismal for the sake of enhancing the melodrama of the ending. More than one university don suggested to me that Mr. Waugh's ending (of a Roman Catholic "Sanctifying Grace" healing all of his broken characters) as a true deus ex machina. I'm half in agreement.
If you do not recall this, then you do not recall the book as well as you think you do. The novel is divided into books with their own numbered chapters, and almost every word that Cordelia says can be found verbatim in Chapter 4 of Book 3. In fact, Cordelia's words are an abridged version of what she says in the novel, and the full story has even more grim details. Your university dons are also mistaken in their suggestions, as the idea of grace is not suddenly introduced at the end of the book, but rather runs through it, and all the broken characters are not "healed', if you mean that fates you have already called "grim" suddenly turn into happy endings of a different sort.
Christ, this is dreary talk.