Charles and Antony Blanche's dinner conversation about Sebastian.
Blanche broadcasting Eliot's poetry to the young men passing by.
The look on Charles' face as he sees Brideshead all those years later.
I can't help it, every time I watch the first two episodes, I get enormously happy. It's not only for my infatuation with the post-WW 1-era, it's the almost hurting happiness and bittersweet nostalgia of an idle youth that glows from the screen, the "Lost World" for Charles, and also for the rest of the world. I especially love the scene when they go to the picnic and the shampagne tastes heavenly with the strawberries.
I even dream sometimes of getting a car just like the one they borrowed and having a little picnic with my friends. The problem is, no one of them has seen or read "Brideshead", so they wouldn't probably get the point :(
* Charles Ryder's face when he sees his room full of flowers, reads the note. Again when he returns and puts the Van Gogh away.
* Rooftop scene introducing Cordelia
* Cordelia and Charles towards the very end when she tells him what she thinks of his relationship with Julia
* Charles and Sebastian resting under the tree on their way to Brideshead
**********************
I cannot say how angry I am about the Brideshead Revisited remake and even more so because they are not only condensing it, but also eliminating the whole religion theme from it. Waugh must be turning in his grave!!! That is as outrageous as eliminating the Civil War from "Gone With the Wind".
My favourite part is when Charles rushed to the house, imagining Sebastian greviously injured and Sebastian wheels up like a naughty boy in that pink dressing gown... and his face just lights up with this smile:)
share"He's my only friend, and I was bloody to him."
I am moved to the brink of tears everytime I watch it. I'm incredibly fond of Sebastian, I always want to just give him a hug! Haha.
"I would see three movies a day to ease the loneliness I felt."
If you watch the scene with Sebastian crying and don't feel tearful yourself...you have no soul. I know what you mean about wanting to give him a hug!
I uploaded that particular scene on YouTube a while ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Fl7JehgB8
Just because. And someone commented on the fact that you can hear Lady Marchmain's voice cracking a bit after Sebastian's left the room, something which I hadn't picked up on the first time. Beautifully acted.
For comedy:
- Most of the scenes with Bridey, such as the "I wish *I* liked wine" scene, with Sebastian's and Cordelia's barely-suppressed sniggering; the "Beryl Muspratt" scene where Bridey reluctantly reveals details about his new fiancée; the "If ever I thought about becoming a Catholic, I'd only have to talk to you for five minutes to be cured" scene with Charles and Bridey. Bridey's pomposity and his ability to utter bizarre ill-thought-out pronouncements is superb.
- The "six black Cordelias" scene with Cordelia: Charles's "WTF" look of bewilderment and incomprehension just makes that scene
- Cordelia putting her foot in it by running off to check how Sebastian's "cold" is and then returning gleefully to announce that he is drunk
- The "conversion lessons" scenes with Father Mowbray and Rex, and Cordelia's made-up rules that Rex swallows hook, line and sinker.
For power and emotion
- the venom of Bridey's "living in sin" speech to Julia, and the fountain scene with Charles and Julia afterwards where she breaks down: the whole of that episode, with Julia's distress and culminating in her decision to break up with Charles, is very poignant
- Sebastian crying on the staircase with Charles trying to console him
- Lady Marchmain's reading of the Father Brown story, and the way she continues stoically after Sebastian's drunken intrusion; the way the whole family tries to ignore it
- the scene with Charles and Cordelia at the Four Winds Temple where she tells Charles about Sebastian's life in the monastery
I think the ultimate power and emotion scene has got to be the final words between Charles and Julia when she explains why she can't marry him - the conflict between what she desperately wants to do and what she feels she must do as a penance to God. I like Charles's repressed venom, tinged with sympathy, in his final words to her "I don't want to make it easy for you. I hope your heart may break. But I *do* understand." I defy anyone to watch that scene without tears in their eyes as they feel his pain at a decision which (despite what he may say) he doesn't really understand because he isn't motivated by religious thoughts. As a non-believer myself, I can't help thinking that she made a very bad decision, all for the sake of something as irrelevant (to me, anyway) as religion.
Everybody sure picked well. Watching it again recently, I was struck at the scene where the Marchmain family and Charles go to "mass" in the chapel. Such a quiet, telling and "spiritual" scene.....really the root,the core an spiritual fire I think of the constant conflict during that time withing the family and the outside world. And that guy, Mr. Samgrass, he takes the cake. Get a load of him when he absolutely lights up getting the chance to "call" for tea by pulling on that bell I guess that goes off in the servants quarters.
He likes that high-class stuff at Brideshead (I'm sure he was middle-class)...;-)...
I know, Mr. Samgrass was such a wannabe! It was kind of disgusting the way he enjoys the privileges of the family, while Sebastian is suffering. Like a trip to Egypt is going to help!
shareYou know I could see Waugh enjoying himself by thinking up and putting a character like Samgrass in Brideshead. But as we know, guys like Samgrass rubbed Waugh the wrong way! he just ahd to get him in there just to make a point.
shareWaugh was obviously an equal opportunity satirist, and that included people in every class. Even Catholic churchmen aren't spared. That priest who catechized Rex Mottram was something. Did he really think that non-Catholics selected their beliefs from some published compendium of errors? We understand Rex perfectly well. What is true for Rex is whatever it takes for him to gain what he wants. The dear Father priest just didn't get that.
share1. Sebastian's plover's-eggs luncheon and Blanche's declaiming from The Waste Land of T. S. Eliot to the rowers.
2. Cara, Lord Marchmain's ladyfriend, talks frankly to Charles. It is a midpoint warning for him. As usual, Charles ignores warnings like this until too late.
3. Julia, out by the fountain, "vomits" for Charles (as Sebastian had literally done so long before). Only, it is emotional vomit from a lifetime of familial Catholicism. (An interesting cross-reference: Lord Marchmain somewhere commented that Italians couldn't paint anything without sticking in Christ on the cross; Julia segues from "mummie bearing my sin to her death" to "Christ on the cross, with nothing but a taste of vinegar and kind words from one thief.") The scene still stuns me.
Anthony Blanche (best character in it) in the gay bar telling Charles what a dolt he'd been to be seduced by the Flytes.
His "I warned you" speech is one of the most succinct set of lines I've ever seen. If anything summed up the series for me it was Anthony's interpretation in that scene. Brutal but 100% correct, and he was probably the only character in the whole programme who truly cared about Charles as a human being and not someone to be used.
In Venice ... rain on the beach, Cara's speech.
Few people I know have been touched by Brideshead, admittedly not read the book yet (only book I've read of Waugh's so far has been "Scoop"), however for me it touches on things of my life that were very strong at that time. It covers Homosexuality, Alcoholsim and Religion: Strong stuff.
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When Charles arrives at Brideshead to see Sebastian in his wheel chair. Going from the lonley boring time with his father and worry over Sebaatian's health to such joyous relief and anticipation of a holiday to be spent in the wonderland that is Brideshead with the one he loves most. Well it's a great feeling. And the exchange about Charles drinks chanpagne at all hours! with the familiarity and warmth between them returning as if no time had passed.
There's also another exchange later on at the dinner table when they smile and know what each other is thinking that I really like. But really all of the 1st 3 eps are my favourite moments.
/Anthony Blanche (best character in it) in the gay bar telling Charles what a dolt he'd been to be seduced by the Flytes.
His "I warned you" speech is one of the most succinct set of lines I've ever seen. If anything summed up the series for me it was Anthony's interpretation in that scene. Brutal but 100% correct, and he was probably the only character in the whole programme who truly cared about Charles as a human being and not someone to be used./
I felt the same way as you about this scene. As outrageous as Anthony was as he seemed to have skipped over the typical adolescent period, the group depended on his sophisticated viewpoints.
One difference between the book and the movie was in this scene. When Anthony told Charles that his South American pictures were "playing tigers", in the book, Charles answered, "You're quite right." In the film, Charles said nothing but crossed his arms and looked down, deeply embarrassed.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
My favorite scene by far- the scene that makes me watch the film over and over- is when Julia, Sebastian, and Charles are at the Lido in Venice. They run in the ocean, splashing water at each other, and the music gets louder. I love the music at that point! That scene is so lovely.
shareActually I agree. The whole experience brings a lump to my throat. The music alone can do this (I have the CD by the late Geoffrey Burgon) but it isn't just the music, beautiful thought it is, all Carla is saying brings such poignancy to the scene.
I adore this part so much it can make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It's not just about the now it's about the future to be, and hammers home the whole mortality of our lives, whilst capturing a perfect innocent moment that can never be revisited.
I wouldn't say I think outside the box - I've never been in it
As I'm thinking about the entire mini-series, I've noticed that I enjoy Irons'
elegaic and melancholy voice-overs to scenes which conjure in him thoughts of those bygone and "halycon" days with the Marchmains. He tempers Waugh's great prose so gloriously and with deep feeling. I just don't think anybody could have done it better.
Do you know he did it twice? After everything was cut and edited, he badgered Sturridge for a second shot and they redid the whole lot, episode by episode, start to finish. At least, that's the way Irons tells it today.
sharealfa..You mean the voiceovers?
shareYep, the voiceovers were fitted to the finished edit and when Irons and Sturridge watched the first two episodes Irons asked if he could do them again and they did. I don't know what the difference is but they are pitch perfect in the final version, beautifully cut in and always seem to burnish the context without turning on the romantic taps too hard. And never one out of place. It's amazing when you realise how little is left out of he book. The final one about the sanctuary light is how I always heard it in my head.
shareYes, absolutely spot on. From the looks of it, I got the feeling Irons intuitively understood Waugh's great writing and knew how to make a great thing better. And when he speaks, you can just hear the melancholy in his careful intonations. Really really good stuff.
share@deeveed on Mon Aug 1 2011
Good for you, deveed. Irons' voice is wonderful. I also doubt that "anybody could have done it better."
@deeveed on Mon Aug 1 2011
I agree, deeveed. Irons' "elegaic and melancholy voice-overs" are masterful.
@paige212 on Mon Feb 8 2010
The scene to which you refer is in the 2008 film, not the 1981 television series.
Hi all, I loved reading ppl's replies, so here's the two moments that will always stay near and dear to my heart:
Sebastian takes Charles to see Brideshead for the first time. Charles asks if Sebastian is ashamed of him, but Sebastian tells him it's because his family is so charming and he refuses to let them steal Charles from him.
Charles exclaims to Sebastian that he spent the whole day with Sebastian's friend and it felt like he was trying to turn him against Sebastian. Sebastian looks fondly down at Charles and tells him he's a bit foolish. The expression on Anthony Andrew's face at that moment was so ... indescribably amazing.
Oh, and of course, any scene with Aloysius. :)
@ melka_mirage on Mon Aug 8 2011
The unfortunate thing is that the Marchmains DO steal Charles from Sebastian, a fact that contributes to Sebastian's separation from Charles and to Charles' eventually styling Sebastian his "lost friend."
Any scene with Anthony Blanche.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne