a series who has the rare gift to not be only a good adaptation. but a travel. not in heart of a beautiful book but in science to recreate an universe exploring each of its nuances. in essence, a splendid cast, a wise script are pillars of that movie who not presents a story but create an unique flavor about passing , illusion, fights against roots and against yourself and fragile form of survive. at first sigh - a testimony. in fact- a magic meeting between great actors and one of seductive performances for Jeremy Irons, a splendid Sebastian by Anthony Andrews and the impression to be part of story for viewer. a film more important after its final image because the state who remains represents a precious gift. must see it ! as useful experience.

The story begins with a voice-over given by Charles Ryder, a captain in the British army during WWII, expressing weariness of his being in the army. Charles' battalion was being transferred to headquarters at a new site, a mansion called Brideshead. Once there the story is told in flashbacks as Charles ruminates on the past twenty years of his life and loves that were intimately connected to Brideshead and the Flyte family of Marquess Marchmain who made it their home.Charles' introduction to the wealthy Flyte family was to fall in love with Lord Marchmain's son Sebastian while he and Sebastian were students at Oxford. It remains unclear whether Charles' relationship with Sebastian was overtly homosexual, but in any case it was intense. The complex relationships that develop between Charles and the Flyte family form the basis of the story. The series is of such a length as to be able to develop the cast of characters in depth.Many themes are touched on: love, loyalty, infidelity, class, and alcoholism, among others. The overarching theme is the role that religion plays in the lives of the characters. Charles is a self-proclaimed agnostic while the Flytes are Catholics having varying degrees of adherence to the Catholic faith and customs. I doubt that it was the intention, but the main message I took away from this was the destructive power of religion. With her strict adherence to the Catholic faith and its customs the strong willed Lady Marchmain managed to destroy Sebastian as well as the love between her daughter Julia and Charles. Sebastian's brother is no less pernicious--he does not even recognize how cruel his hidebound adherence to rules makes him. Given Charles' detailing of the irrationalities of religion, commented on throughout the movie, and his recognition of how religion had ruined his relationships with Sebastian and Julia, his conversion at the end puzzled me. From Charles' behavior it would appear that he was never inoculated with religion when he was young; from what we see of his father I doubt that he got it from him. So, what did Charles see that moved him to convert? The trigger point seemed to be when he saw Lord Marchmain cross himself at the end of his life. The movie would have made more sense to me if Charles' experiences had made him even more confirmed in his lack of belief, the point being that the gap between believers and non-believers is difficult to bridge. But I suppose the movie is more thought provoking as it is. The message must be that once you tap into a relationship with a higher power, that becomes the primary driving force of your life.The production values of this series rank with the highest of any lavishly funded first run movie. The remastered version on the 2006 DVD is excellent. Filming in existing castles and actual locations makes for much realism. The attention to period details, from autos, to furniture, to dress, to household ornaments, is amazing. There is an incredible hunting scene that must have taken forever to stage and film. This has the look of a "cost and time are of no concern" project. I doubt that there will ever be a more detailed view of upper class British life between the wars as this.This is the most fully realized adaptation of a novel I have seen. Every scene is thought through and, unless you have a most vivid imagination, improves on reading the novel. Consider the scene where Cordelia is speculating to Charles about Sebastian's ultimate fate. In the novel Cordelia's recounting is one lengthy monologue, whereas in the movie Phoebe Nicholls delivers the lines with some detachment, but punctuated with significant pauses letting you infer the underlying emotion. We see Charles' reactions conveyed by his facial expressions, and the body language between the two says much. I picked up on the humor in the book in the scenes with Charles and his father, but my conception paled in comparison with the hilarious interpretation given by John Gielgud. And so it goes with every character. Once you see Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche you will never be able to imagine that character in any other way. Since Charles is the central character, the movie would be greatly diminished without a strong performance in that role. Jeremy Irons fills the bill most admirably. Charles is the kind of person that things happen to rather than actively making things happen. This does not mean that he does not experience life intensely and in his voice-overs and actions Irons strikes just the right tone of detached restraint masking strong emotion.This series is a refutation to anyone who thinks that motion pictures are not an art form. When the spoken word, music, and visual images are skillfully combined, the effect is mighty powerful.

Brideshead Revisited, by Arthur Evelyn Waugh, is one of the greatest and possibly luckiest books on the planet today. A truly heart-wrenching story of a decaying, idyllic society, it is fortunate enough to have this truly excellent TV Series to accompany it. I won't spoil it as it is truly a lovely, subtle narrative, but the actors (you won't get a much better cast anywhere else) portray the characters brilliantly. From Jeremy Irons' slightly unsure Charles Ryder (his slow, even narration is superb) to the hugely likable, but sadly doomed, Anthony Andrews as Sebastian Flyte. Castle Howard, as you will come to realise, is the perfect Brideshead for the series is a character in itself in the series as it seems to change with the general moods of the characters. All in all, this is a truly wonderful series that stays very true to the book. The sad thing is that there won't be many, if any, series like this in the future.

In 1979, Granada Television embarked on an epic adventure of their own. They decided to produce lavish dramas with no expense spared to sway the IBA to extend their franchise for a further 10 years. Brideshead Revisited was one drama to be produced at the time. Granada commissioned John Mortimer to adapt Evelyn Waugh's novel of the 1920's for the small screen. The resulting screenplay was a six hour series and filming commenced in 1979.During filming, a technicians strike at ITV suspended all activity. At this stage, Granada felt that too much had been missed out of the book and asked Mortimer to rewrite his screenplay with filming starting from scratch after the strike had ended. The result is a laboured, overly long adaptation of a great piece of fiction. Mortimer adapted the book literally creating an episode per chapter. This amounted to over 13 hours of television in eleven episodes. It is said that it is quicker to read the book than watch the resulting series.The series starts well. The early episodes showing the development of the friendship between Charles and Sebastian as they meet at Oxford and develop a close bond are well acted and portrayed. The issue of the level of love between the two characters is skilfully handled as like in the book, we never quite know how far their love extends. It is later that the drama becomes a lot more laboured. In later episodes Sebastian is exiled leaving Charles to develop his friendship with the rest of the Flyte family. At this stage, it would have been far better to condense a number of chapters into each episode. Instead we are subjected to laboured acting as the actors introduce large pauses into their lines probably in an attempt to spin out the length of each episode.