Customer Reviews

Brideshead Revisited

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Brideshead Revisited is the finest film made for television that I have ever seen. It is true to Evelyn Waugh's great novel. After watching this movie I bought the book and liked it as much as the videos. For those viewers who like to read, if you enjoyed the film you are almost certain to love the book.

After reading the novel, I viewed the tapes a second time and discovered that the movie was even better than I first thought.

What makes this video series great? The performances by a top flight cast are superb and the story is compelling. Jeremy Irons plays the part of Charles Ryder, an artist in search of his soul. His paintings are technially brilliant, but something is missing from them. An eccentric friend characterizes Ryder's work as full of "charm," and this evaluation is true -- the paintings are stylish, but soulless.

Anthony Andrews brings to life Ryder's Oxford college friend, Lord Sebastian Flyte, a spoiled aristocrat trying to break free from the influence of his dysfunctional family. Claire Bloom is his mother, Lady Marchmain, separated from his father, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Lord Marchmain. Bloom is cool, calculating, and condescending. When young Sebastian becomes an embarassing drunk, she seems pleased to attempt to reclaim him from social and spiritual destruction.

Somewhat later in the film Ryder realizes the destructive nature of Sebastian's relationship with his mother. Ryder subverts her wishes by giving Sebastian money for alcohol and then Ryder makes a break with the family when his gift of money to Sebastian is discovered by Lady Marchmain, who confronts Ryder with her muted, yet terrible anger.

Sir John Gielgud is brilliant as Ryder's disinterested father; we come to understand why Ryder lacks Sebastian's heart. Ryder grew up unloved and uncared for and he spends the rest of his life attempting to overcome his disabilty. His marriage to his first wife ends in divorce and he then falls in love with Lady Julia, Sebastian's sister. In the end Ryder's coldness, aloofness, and disdain for religion, something Julia and Sebastian hold dear, cause their breakup.

Last, but not least, the filmmakers have lavished great expense on all aspects of this production. The sets are superbly created to give us a true feel for the time and place in England at the time between the great wars. The music also deserves special mention. It beautifully supports the story and is worth listening to on its own merits. It stays in the listener's mind long after the drama is finished.

Can film ever stand comparison with great literaure? The Brideshead Revisited video series answers this question with a resounding "yes"!

I have just finished watching the 25th Anniversary Edition of Brideshead Revisited and recommend it highly. The sound is clear and the picture quality is excellent. I also enjoyed the special features included with the set, particularly the interviews with cast and crew.

The only difference between this set and the original Acorn DVD release of 2002 (which was beautifully done) is the addition of the "Revisiting Brideshead" documentary and outtakes. The documentary is awful; the kind of thing that trivializes the work by superficial, self-inflated explanation from literary and media "experts" of things perfectly obvious to anyone who watches the series. I don't need a media critique telling me how perfect Anthony Andrews' performance was--I watched the series and saw so myself. I don't need to be instructed about the religious and sexual tension in the story--its there if you watch it. I was hoping the documentary would be conversation from the actors and crew about the filming, but I guess that would have been too simple. In fact, the several screens of text in the original DVD release that tell the story of the filming are much more interesting. This documentary is depressing, condescending and just stupid--I would skip it altogether.

As for the outtakes, not much there. The only real outtakes are Phoebe Nichols (Cordelia) dropping a couple of "f" bombs over missed cues, Anthony Andrews flubbing a line here and there and grainy footage of the cast and crew at horseplay. Again, not worth the purchase, but certainly more engaging than the documentary.

I see no reason for this anniversary edition--stick to the original Acorn release if you can find it. Much nicer packaging too.

Through my own connections, I was able to obtain this item a month before its street date so you all get to know what you're getting.

The Brideshead DVD Box Set, while not perfect, is indeed excellent and I'll explain why.

As is increasingly the case, the actual disc carriages are part of a three leaved slide-out assemblage which folds up and then is stored in a case, just like with the Godfather DVD Box Set.

These case formats are an excellent way to fight piracy and look great but are not the best in in terms of long term box preservation as cardboard and photo-printed cardboard will degrade.

This release of Brideshead is the 660 minute version of the mini-series and I believe this is the longest and most complete version ever released!

The episode menus and scene selection are pretty, functional and fairly rudimentary, nothing exceptional here.

A little booklet with some director's commentary and info on Evelyn Waugh and the episodes is included.

There are no real DVD Special Edition type extras save for a brief but comprehensive written film/DVD production summary, info on Castle Howard, a cast/production team bio (Aloysius has his own entry and a hysterically funny news interview with the director about him), and some photography taken while shooting.

There are regrettably no interviews with the cast or production team, no director's commentary, and no deleted/extended scenes, though since we've all been forced to endure the butchered Home Video verson this as full as full can be version is in a sense full of them. There are no theatrical trailers or television spots.

Image quality is good and one thing that's mentioned in the production report is just how painstaking the video/audio restoration really was and how VERY lucky they -- and we -- were to be able to find the original film master in England and then clean it up.

Once again, and this is becoming a great joke in the film community, a US company picks up the distribution/restoration rights to a foreign country's film treasures and then releases the best version ever made outside the market it originated in. We did it to the Japanese with Macross and we did it to England with Brideshead Revisited.

This version of Brideshead looks better then the original did when it first came out for reasons explained on the DVD.

The video and audio restoration was very good given the age and condition of the original film master. It's a little grainy here and there but that would have been tough to avoid. They should have spread this out over more discs for the most optimal compression ratios and resulting images but you'll not be disappointed with the results.

If this title sells as well as it should, perhaps the American company that obtained and restored it can do a Special Edition version. For now, after all these years, Brideshead is where it belongs, on DVD and in my collection.

Evelyn Waugh's book is a magnificent testament to the power of memory and language, and I doubt any more faithful an adadptation is possible. Jeremy Irons as the seemingly detached, but always emotionally involved friend (Charles Ryder) of Anthony Adrews (Sebastian), plays one of his finest roles. The cinematography is unparalleled, and after watching this numerous times, I was compelled to visit Castle Howard, which is the "Brideshead" home. This is a video (or series of videos) to curl up with on a long afternoon and evening (its about 13 hours long), but if at the end you haven't fallen in love with Julia as Charles had, if you haven't cried for Sebastian as he tends to the down trodden Kurt, then you are missing some of the basic emotional fabric of what makes us human. Sebastian says "it's a rather pleaseant change when all your life you've had people looking after you, to have someone to look after yourself". This is a book, a story and a video that deserves to be looked at many times and looked after as well.

Brilliantly adapted by John Mortimer from Evelyn Waugh's celebrated novel of England between the first and second World Wars, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is easily the best miniseries ever made. Smoothly and subtly directed by Charles Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the twelve hour program is beautiful to look at, the cast is remarkable, and the story has amazing impact.

The miniseries follows the novel closely, beginning near the end of World War II as Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons) grows disdainful of military life, which he finds a study in futility--and then flashes back twenty years as Ryder recalls his relationship with the aristocratic Marchmain family, a relationship that begins when he becomes friendly with Marchmain son Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews) while the two are students at Oxford. The miniseries captures perfectly a golden moment of youth--and then the gradual disillusionment brought by the passage of time. Like all great works, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED--both book and film--touches on a great many themes, most specifically an innocent type of homoeroticism, loss of innocence, alcoholism, adultry, and changing society; ultimately, however, the story is about spiritual values and how they survive in even the most unlikely of circumstances--and how God works through individuals in the most unexpected ways.

The performances here are truly fine beyond description. Jeremy Irons has seldom surpassed his work here, and neither Anthony Andrews nor Dianna Quick (as Julia, Sebastian's sister) have ever bested their performances in this film. In addition to the three leads, the miniseries offers an incredible array of superior performances by John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Laurence Olivier; the cinematography and art design is flawless; and the score by Geoffrey Burgon is exquiste. Mortimer's script is remarkable in that it not only manages to recreate the novel, it also manages to capture the intangible, spiritual elements upon which the book plays but seldom directly references. A must-own work for any one who appreciates the best of the best; strongly, strongly recommended.

The restoration is gorgeous and overall the balance between material length and compression is great. But there's a slight hitch. BRIDESHEAD was 11 episodes long, with episodes 1 and 11 around 100 minutes each, and episodes 2-10 were around 50 minutes each. So, disc 1 (eps. 1-3) and disc 2 (eps. 4-7) hold ~200 minutes each, while disc 3 (eps. 8-11) has ~250 minutes crammed onto it. And it shows. The compression rate is so high that you can see wainscotting on the walls waver and flat patches of color. It *IS* ignorable and the episodes are watchable, especially if you're a regular viewer and not a hypersensitive resolution-junkie addicted to Superbit discs. :^) But if you are one of those poor sharp-eyed souls, realize that there has been a compromise.

One could easily make a case for BRIDESHEAD REVISITED being the finest single production in the history of television. Few if any series can boast the quality of acting, the locations, the script, musical score, and overall production of this remarkable miniseries. Its great length provides an opportunity for an in-depth exploration of its source material, so much so that virtually no aspect of the Evelyn Waugh's novel is left untouched. The novel is Waugh's most heartfelt though least typical. A contemporary described Dostoevsky as the meanest Christian he had ever met, and one could equally state that Waugh was one of the meanest Catholics. He was a devout Catholic, but in a way that was somewhat self-absorbed and prickly. While his other novels are largely nonsectarian and darkly comic, this one-which exists in an earlier version and also in the completely reconceptualized version-is rooted in his own deepest beliefs. Much to its credit, the series does not mute in the least the Catholic themes of the novel.

The series features several superlative performances, three of which at the time seemed to be star-making roles. In 1981 Jeremy Irons instantly became one of the most respected and celebrated actors of his generation through his appearance in THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN and as the central character of Charles Ryder in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. Except for one episode that largely focuses in flashback on the history of Julia Flyte, the entire series features Charles Ryder in virtually every scene, and even in scenes where Charles does not appear, his narration structures the narrative, so that the production as a whole succeeds or fails to the degree that Jeremy Irons's succeeds or fails. Luckily, he is spectacular, and one could legitimately insist that this could be the finest single performance in the history of television. Anthony Andrews steals many scenes as the doomed Sebastian Flyte, and when this series first appeared his future seemed to be possible as bright as Irons's. Inexplicably, he was never able to find movie roles that would allow him to build upon his many successes in television (not just in this series, but in UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS and DANGER UXB). Similarly, Diana Quick, who stands out as Julia, despite a successful career on stage, has not had film or television success following this series. Regardless of their subsequent careers, they jointly manage to elevate this production to the level of high art. The series is driven not merely by the central performers, however, but by a host of spectacular supporting actors. Laurence Olivier's name is prominently listed among all the performers, but I actually find him to be one of the less impressive performers in the production. John Gielgud steals absolutely every second he is onscreen, as Charles's spectacularly cold and sardonic father. My only complaint with the series (except for the Waugh's ending, of which more below) is that there wasn't more John Gielgud, but since they stuck very closely to the novel, this wouldn't have been possible without adding scenes that didn't exist in the novel. Claire Bloom is superb as Julia and Sebastian's mother Lady Marchmain. Phoebe Nichols and Simon Jones are delightful as the other members of the family, though the former is not quite the plain looking woman the narrative suggests. Jones is exquisite of the almost otherworldly future head of the clan. But if there is a star performance among the supporters in addition to Gielgud's, it is the relatively unknown Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche, who is transparently based in Waugh's novel on twenties aesthete and later notorious Soviet spy and noted art historian Anthony Blunt. Everyone one of Grace's scenes are a delight, and one experiences a twinge of regret as they end.

What flaws exist in the series exist in the novel. John Mortimer, who adapted the novel for the series and who is perhaps best known otherwise for his Rumpole of the Bailey, stays absolutely true to the novel at every point. He becomes an almost transparent medium for the translation of the novel into visual form. My principle complaint with the film and with the novel is the strange theological sentiments driving the plot. Waugh's own religious beliefs are rooted in that odd English Roman Catholicism that seems to delight in being intellectually counterintuitive and self-mortifying. The climax of the novel and the series comes with the death of Lord Marchmain, born Anglican but a convert to Catholicism at the time of his marriage to his wife, defiantly lapsed during his later years, but taking willingly the sacrament at the moment of his death. Julia and Charles, who have been engaged in a passionate and enormously healthy relationship, despite both having been married to others see Marchmain's reconciliation with the Church as a sign that they must sever their relationship. Most viewers and readers-even most Catholic viewers and readers-find this central plot contrivance to be both morally offensive and theologically reprehensible. The charge seems to be that God delights in the wrecking of a caring, loving relationship over some theological technicalities. I personally felt offended by Waugh's superimposing on God as set of demands that stem on any intelligible plane from the Church and not from God. I'm as unmoved by Waugh's assertions about God's will as I am by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's. Why blame God for a set of very bad decisions? Most viewers will feel that Charles and Julia do not end up together because of abject stupidity. The series ends up feeling like a tragedy with God as the perpetuator. My own view is that in a real world situation, God would want them together and happy, instead of apart and terribly unhappy. Still, there is no denying that this theological complexity gives both the novel and the series a unique seriousness. And even if one does not agree with the decision that Julia and Charles make, there is no denying the power at the end when Charles's unexpectedly kneels in the Brideshead Chapel and prays.

Everything touching this production is magnificent. The location settings around the globe, the sets, the remarkable use of Castle Howard employed for all the Brideshead shots, the costume and art directions, are all as superb as one could hope. And special mention must be made of the music, with apparently a hundred variations on the main theme according to the scene at hand. The only negative I would add about the DVDs is that they are rather devoid of special features. My hope is that at some point they re-release this extraordinary series in a new edition with greatly expanded special features. Even if they do not, this remains one of the truly essential works ever produced for television and preserved on DVD.

Even if you have never read Evelyn Waugh's brilliant book, you will greatly enjoy this superb video series. The character of Waugh's incisive prose is preserved, and the first-rate performances of the cast (Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Claire Bloom among others) will deeply impress you.

Brideshead Revisisted is the story of Charles Ryder and his connections to the aristocratic Marchmain family whose estate--Brideshead-- provides the core of this story. We follow Charles from his first encounters with Sebastian Flyte (the youngest Marchmain son) at Oxford and the passionate friendship that develops between the two to the final breakdown of Charles relationship with the Marchmain family. Charles's devotion to Sebastian is matched by his romantic interest in the Marchmain clan, and his developing love for Sebastian's sister Julia.

With beautiful settings from Oxford to Venice and marvelous music, the watcher is transported to the first half of the 20th century and tossed from emotional high to emotiional low along with the main characters. If you like movies like Howard's End and Wings of the Dove, or TV series like Upstairs Downstairs, why not treat yourself to this set of videos? At nearly 10 hours, it costs about as much as 5 trips to the movies, so is well worth the splurge.

Well, it's about time. One of the best (in my opinion, the best) of the British mini-series has finally made it to DVD. Although not perfect, the transfer is very good indeed, and a vast improvement over my ancient tapes.

My only (minor) complaints involve the sound, which is occasionally a little muddy; and now and again the dialogue seems ever so slightly out of sync with the actors. Also, there is no close captioning or English subtitles.

But forget that and think of what we're getting: an excellent adaptation of Waugh's fine novel; first-rate performances (keep a special eye out for John Gielgud, who gives what must be one of the funniest performances ever put on screen); glorious location sets and period costumes which can be appreciated fully now that their colors can be seen.

There are a few extras on the disc, and a small booklet with some interesting information. But it's the show that's the thing here, and it gets the treatment it deserves. Highly recommended.

I owned this on VHS and have just purchased the 25th anniversary edition on DVD. It is still superb and beautifully transferred to the new format; the colors are lavish, the photography as if it were filmed yesterday.
My only criticism is on one of the DVD features, a narration that includes Jeremy Irons. Whereas on the other narrated episode, Anthony Andrews's comments are engaging, enthusiastic, detailed, and sounding like a labor of love, Irons's comments (along with the director and co-star Diana Quick) are minimal, vague, occasionally mere grunts, and, clearly he couldn't wait for the session to be finished.
He had no recall of working with Andrews prior to Brideshead, but I can remember that they worked together on the BBC's Palliser series.
A small detail,but illustrative of Irons's complete lack of interest in his commentary. He simply couldn't be bothered. But that's real life.
The series is the very best that television has ever produced; the story is of a bygone era, so the passage of 25 years since the filming is irrelevant.The production values were ahead of their time in any case.
Don't miss owning this.