Friday, July 25, 2008

Movie review and lead actor interview: Brideshead Revisited

What does Charles Ryder really want?

By John P. Meyer

Brideshead Revisited

"Brideshead Revisited" tells an evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in the pre-WWII era. In the film, Charles Ryder becomes entranced with the noble Marchmain family, first through the charming and provocative Sebastian Flyte, and then his sophisticated sister, Julia. The rise and fall of Charles' infatuations reflect the decline of a decadent era in England between the wars.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Brideshead Revisited

Director Julian Jarrold filmed the opulent estate sequences for his lush new production of Brideshead Revisited at Castle Howard in York. The last film crew to use Castle Howard for their location shooting were - bonus points if you already knew this - the folks responsible for Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006). More to the point, a prior version of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead was shot there in 1981. According to the castle's official website, there's no reason to believe that novelist Waugh didn't have Castle Howard in mind when he wrote the book.

While not 13 hours in duration (as is the 1981 made-for-TV miniseries), Jarrold's Brideshead is still rather longish for a movie, clocking in at 135 minutes. But if you're into period costume dramas and/or twisty tales of ambiguously sexual romance, then this retro-Brit anti-morality play may just be your cup of tea. (Two lumps and don't spare the cream, there's a good fellow.)

As we learn straightaway in the opening flash-forward sequence, protagonist Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode, last seen as the manipulative Gary Spargo in The Lookout) is loaded to the brim with guilt. According to the estimation of his internal narrator, his life to this point has been shaped by it. He's presently attached to a group of soldiers stationed on the grounds of the estate in preparation for an assault on Hitler's fortress Europe, but this scenario serves only as the springboard to launch us backward in time into the featured guilt-inducing content of our story.

Things that might prove of interest to a struggling artist of ambiguous tastes: 1) strangely attractive lord; 2) hot lady; 3) vast estate with an excellent wine cellar

... which picks up as young Charles prepares to depart from London home and hearth to study at Oxford. Hearth, in Charles' case, is overseen by a father (Patrick Malahide, as Edward Ryder) practically dripping in acerbic wit, while lacking any apparent vestige of bonhomie in regard to his offspring. He barely glances over the top of his newspaper while bidding his son "goodbye and have a nice semester." No love lost here, nor any to be found.

It's up to Cousin Jasper (Richard Teverson) to put Charles' Oxfords on solid footing as he orients himself to campus life. Jasper advises Charles on proper attire, suggests that he immediately move out of his ground-floor dormitory room (where rowdy distractions are likely to detract from his studies) and particularly advises him against taking up with a group of demonstrative campus dramatists led by Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw, of Perfume fame). "Sodomites, all of them," declares Jasper. "Stay well clear."

Fortunately, Charles pays no heed to his cousin's advice: otherwise we'd have little story to hang upon for the next two hours - or an entirely different and (probably) far less entertaining one, presumably.

Emma Thompson adding gravitas. Elegantly.

Soon, aspiring artist Charles finds himself firmly ensconced among the dandified gentry hovering about Lord Flyte like a cloud of worshipful midges. Early on it's clear that Sebastian dotes upon the self-possessed and arguably quite handsome (in a clean-cut, white bread way) Charles Ryder, who quickly becomes his favorite. While Sebastian's interest in Charles extends beyond simple friendship, it's unclear whether Charles is attracted to his mentor romantically, or simply abides Sebastian's doe-eyed longing glances in order to retain a seat at his benevolent right hand.

Charles' motivations become even murkier after Sebastian invites him to visit the family estate during a break from studies. What middle class bloke could fail to be bowled over by a palatial residence such as Brideshead? The gatehouse alone would serve to house the entire Pegasus News editorial staff, with room to spare for our extended families. If there existed smidgens of doubt in Charles' mind that a relationship with Sebastian, in some form or fashion, was a good thing, at this point they vanish forever.

In fact, Charles seems to be warming to the prospect of a dalliance with his effete friend Sebastian. They lean shoulder to shoulder beneath shade trees expounding upon the arts, then bathe naked in the fountain fronting the estate. (This last proves ill-timed, as the limousine-borne contingent of Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) tools majestically up the driveway as they are thus porpoising about.) Yet still, Charles remains sexually conflicted, as evidenced by the fact that he shies away from poor Sebastian's feeble attempt at a kiss.

How 'bout a brother/sister sandwich?

The conflict becomes broader when Sebastian's sister Julia (Hayley Atwell, Cassandra's Dream) enters the fray. During a trip to Venice, this snooty, stand-offish, pageboy-coiffed vixen reveals herself to be only reluctantly opposed to falling for Charles, after the fashion of her brother. Ah, Venezia! Amongst the masqued revelers celebrating Carnivale, a man and woman wishing to shroud their attraction in secrecy might still snatch a kiss undiscovered in a shadowy alcove.

Or perhaps they'd better not. (Enter Guilt, stage left.)

Brideshead Revisited: Mark 2008 is a sumptuous visual feast that succeeds in resurrecting the magnificent decadence of pre-WWII British aristocracy in all its multifarious ambiguity. Arguments of religion vs. secularism and individual vs. public good take their place beside hetero- and homosexuality in this hedonistic drama of a wayward soul seeking his heart's safe harbor.

Standout supporting performances are turned in by Emma Thompson, who lends her Lady Marchmain just the right balance of matriarchal dominance and motherly affection; and Michael Gambon, whose Lord Marchmain - living in self-imposed exile with his mistress in Venice - returns to both his faith and his family seat before the final curtain.

In the lead role Mr. Goode performs convincingly as the self-centered man of promise who can't seem to make up his mind about much of anything - because he's seldom required to. Charles Ryder's chief talent is a chameleon-like knack for fitting into any social situation; he simply loves being loved, and is willing to sacrifice much to expand the ranks of those who love him. At their peril.

Ben Whishaw imbues Sebastian with a tragic ineffectual romanticism that garners the sympathy of those who wrong him (his would-be lover Charles; his sister; his well-intentioned but enabling mother) without the force of will to change their behavior towards him. Hayley Atwell's Julia puts on a good show of remaining aloof, but when her mask of propriety comes off (as it eventually does) her passion burns ferociously, turning reputations to ash.

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John P. Meyer

Matthew Goode: one laid-back Brit

Actor Matthew Goode sat down for a roundtable interview with a group of film reviewers at the Mansion on Turtle Creek on Thursday, July 24 - the day before Brideshead Revisited made its limited U.S. premiere.

As you can see by the photo, Mr. Goode was relaxed and laid back to the max, and spoke with us candidly about his early reservations about the way his character's role had been written in the film script.

Here are highlights of the the two-part podcast.

Part 1:

Goode's agent gave him a DVD copy of the 1981 mini-series about five years ago - unsuspecting that his client would be offered the lead in the new film version

Matthew Goode Part 1

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"God - he's so vocal in the novel, and in this he's practically mute," says Matthew, re. the film script

"It only happened once when I looked at an armchair and I thought, 'fuck me, that's where Olivier was.'" - re. filming in the same location as the mini-series

"It's got the chapel there, and the obelisk, and the fountain - so it's got it all for you there." - re. Castle Howard, and whether or not it was the setting envisioned by Waugh for the novel

"It's a desperate search to understand what love is and where he fits in in the world..." - re. what Charles Ryder really wants

"You play better tennis when you're playing with a pro. And it's the same for us, really." - re. acting alongside Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon

"Well you can't fake that, no way. That's one hell of a back-set, otherwise." - re. whether they actually filmed in Venice

"Gambon has the dirtiest jokes, so I buddied up pretty quickly with him."

Part 2:

"The book was always our bible." - re. Evelyn Waugh's novel

Matthew Goode Part 2

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In regard to the forthcoming Watchmen movie: "I think it got the director it deserves (i.e., Zack Snyder) ... it is the Citizen Kane of the graphic novel world."

"I hope Alan doesn't speak out against it, but if he does, he does." - re. Alan Moore, writer of Watchmen

"He spoke to her a lot more than he did to me... I wasn't as central to the story as she was, and he likes ladies, also..." - re. his and Hayley Atwell's experiences working with Woody Allen

"He's very hands-off as a director." - re. Woody

"I think doing The Lookout has helped because suddenly people go, 'you can do other things.'"

"He's upper middle class, but his is a family of intellectuals rather than money." - re. Charles Ryder

"It's a very European film in many respects... I think it's gonna go down well in places like France."

"No Hollywood endings in this. It's deep, and tragic, and complicated." - re. Brideshead Revisited

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