Sunday 12 October 2008

Born in a different era

Having read and loved the novel Brideshead Revisited, I was worried that the new film adaptation, which has received mixed critical responses, would disappoint. But when I watched it today, I enjoyed it very much; I thought the acting was impressive and the script fairly sound (although this was one aspect which didn't quite live up to Evelyn Waugh's fine example). The one thing which I really did enjoy, and which made the two and a half hours feel much shorter was the absolute beauty of the film. If you scroll through my 'movie magic' posts using the tags, you'll see that my earlier posts were really centered on the sheer beauty of some of my favourite films. Recently, I haven't seen anything quite so cinematically magnificent in quite a long time, which is why I found this film such an absolute treat.

I have never had very much of a desire to live in the 20s/30s which have always seemed very oppressive, if also wonderfully romantic. But after watching the lives of the glamorous Flyte aristocracy, I would love to journey back a hundred odd years...

Julia's (played by Hayley Atwell - gorgeous and refreshingly curvy! Great interview here) outfits are definitely the fashion highlight; scene after scene of fantastic outfits and shots perfectly capture the extravagence of the book so that that I really can't complain.


5 comments:

  1. Ooh, that looks gorgeous. I started the novel a couple of weeks ago, and wasn't in the mood, so I put it down. I'm hoping to enjoy it later.

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  2. When I read it, I couldn't get past the Prologue! My (slightly naughty) advice is to skip it, it gets sooo much better...

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  3. OK, gotta get a girl posse together and see this film.

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  4. I muddled through page after page of the prologue, and had to stop! I can't believe you and I had similar experiences.

    I also sort of inferred a Nazi-sympathizer undertone. That was a turnoff, and I'm hoping that when I pick the book up again, I'll be mistaken in that impression.

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