A clever and insightful piece appeared in Slate the other day, a love letter of sorts, from the ready pen of Troy Patterson (http://www.slate.com/id/2195923/pagenum/2/ ). His object? Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, and, more importantly, the outstanding 1982 British TV miniseries adapted from it. Now, imagine me in Spokane in 1981-2: a senior in high school, a football player, a carouser, driving an International Harvester Scout, wearing my hair curly and long, blasting Montrose as loudly as my piddley little car stereo will let me...and totally addicted to a PBS miniseries about a bisexual Oxford student and his romantic misadventures with an English aristocratic Catholic family whom he both loves and loathes. Ah, but ain't that America...
BR remains, in my mind, the high water mark of the BritTV period drama genre. Not only was it a great drama served up in 13 glorious, languid hours of excellent performances and stunning locations, it was a mighty fine stand-in for the novel. Indeed, as Patterson points out, it follows it almost scene-for-scene, and between the faithful dialogue and the constant voice-over narration, the soundtrack could serve as a pretty good book-on-tape abridgement. The series features an up and coming Jeremy Irons as the enthralled lead, Charles Ryder; the soon to be sadly underused (in cinema, anyway) Anthony Andrews as the object of his affections, Lord Sebastian Flyte; and Claire Bloom as the domineering and devout Lady Marchmain, a woman who elevates passive aggression to the level of a martial art. The cast is rounded out with Brit TV/theatre/cinema stalwarts Diana Quick, Phoebe Nichols, Nicholas Grace (unforgettably), Simon Jones, Charles Keating, and, most wonderfully, John Geilgud and Lawrence Olivier in smaller roles as the respective fathers of Ryder and Flyte. I bought the DVD box-set of the series a couple years ago and was exceedingly pleased that the series was every bit as good as I had remembered. Indeed, though I'm curious to see how the new cinematic version presents the story (Patterson lambasts it), I can't help but feel the excellence and comprehensiveness of the '82 version will probably remain forever unparalleled. One amazing rumor I've heard (and I have trouble believing that it's true) is that the new film skips past most of the Charles/Sebastian relationship and moves directly to the Charles/Julia relationship, which, if it's true, is troubling. The miniseries (like the novel) makes the former relationship the platform for all other actions in the story; indeed, Charles never really fully recovers from Sebastian, and all that happens after he leaves the central story is so deeply overshadowed by his absence that I can't even conceive of a retelling of BR that does not fully explore the significance of this love. I do hope the rumor isn't true.
~
Whenever Hollywood gets ahold of one of your favorite novels and makes of it a "vomitous stupidity," remember that there exist in this world (1) Loaves of Trader Joe's English Muffin Bread. Why choose between crisp toast or chewy English muffin when you can have both in a single slice? (2) The most amazing veggie tacos, taken from Annie Somerville's Everyday Greens (and improvised on by K, mistress of the grill), which give you grilled plaintains, butternut squash, peppers, poblano chilis, and onions in one gorgeous mouthful after another. (3) Louise Brooks' bangs. (4) Those great big wooden supports that are set-up under very old tree branches. (5) Bookshops filled to the rafters with old Penguin paperbacks (scrumptious orange and cream covers), such as the one I happened into once in Inverness, Scotland.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHLEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BR remains, in my mind, the high water mark of the BritTV period drama genre. Not only was it a great drama served up in 13 glorious, languid hours of excellent performances and stunning locations, it was a mighty fine stand-in for the novel. Indeed, as Patterson points out, it follows it almost scene-for-scene, and between the faithful dialogue and the constant voice-over narration, the soundtrack could serve as a pretty good book-on-tape abridgement. The series features an up and coming Jeremy Irons as the enthralled lead, Charles Ryder; the soon to be sadly underused (in cinema, anyway) Anthony Andrews as the object of his affections, Lord Sebastian Flyte; and Claire Bloom as the domineering and devout Lady Marchmain, a woman who elevates passive aggression to the level of a martial art. The cast is rounded out with Brit TV/theatre/cinema stalwarts Diana Quick, Phoebe Nichols, Nicholas Grace (unforgettably), Simon Jones, Charles Keating, and, most wonderfully, John Geilgud and Lawrence Olivier in smaller roles as the respective fathers of Ryder and Flyte. I bought the DVD box-set of the series a couple years ago and was exceedingly pleased that the series was every bit as good as I had remembered. Indeed, though I'm curious to see how the new cinematic version presents the story (Patterson lambasts it), I can't help but feel the excellence and comprehensiveness of the '82 version will probably remain forever unparalleled. One amazing rumor I've heard (and I have trouble believing that it's true) is that the new film skips past most of the Charles/Sebastian relationship and moves directly to the Charles/Julia relationship, which, if it's true, is troubling. The miniseries (like the novel) makes the former relationship the platform for all other actions in the story; indeed, Charles never really fully recovers from Sebastian, and all that happens after he leaves the central story is so deeply overshadowed by his absence that I can't even conceive of a retelling of BR that does not fully explore the significance of this love. I do hope the rumor isn't true.
~
Whenever Hollywood gets ahold of one of your favorite novels and makes of it a "vomitous stupidity," remember that there exist in this world (1) Loaves of Trader Joe's English Muffin Bread. Why choose between crisp toast or chewy English muffin when you can have both in a single slice? (2) The most amazing veggie tacos, taken from Annie Somerville's Everyday Greens (and improvised on by K, mistress of the grill), which give you grilled plaintains, butternut squash, peppers, poblano chilis, and onions in one gorgeous mouthful after another. (3) Louise Brooks' bangs. (4) Those great big wooden supports that are set-up under very old tree branches. (5) Bookshops filled to the rafters with old Penguin paperbacks (scrumptious orange and cream covers), such as the one I happened into once in Inverness, Scotland.
~
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHLEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Jim.
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