November 9, 2004

Brideshead Revisited...Revisited?

In the works...
Jude Law joins Jennifer Connelly and her real-life hubby, Paul Bettany in an updated version of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh.

The original 1981 mini-series was a mega-hit and helped launch the career of its star, Jeremy Irons. I, for one, could barely keep from falling into a coma whilst powering through all 11 episodes earlier this fall with Kim. While it had its bright moments, I can only chalk up the original series' success to the lack of Tivo and good cable at the time. Perhaps if while viewing we'd been drinking as much as the movie's protagonist, Sebastian, we might have had a jolly good time. Since my only real beef with the miniseries is that is was WAY too long, I'll be eager to check out the condensed new version when it eventually hits theaters. (Kim no doubt gives it a preliminary thumbs up for the Jude Law/Paul Bettany dual hottie factor.) -- Amy

8 comments:

  1. How well you know me. I predict this will be a huge hit.

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  2. Anonymous7:38 AM

    BLASPHEMY - How on earth could you fall into a coma watching the original Brideshead? Sure maybe the pace slows to crawl towards the end but this is an intentional contrast to the previous excesses and is meant to represent the family's inevitable delcine. Maybe its a generation thing. I was 12 years old in 1981 and me and the rest of the world had never seem anything like it - true it wouldn't have the same impact now, but lets face it can you name a TV series you've seen in the last ten years people are still talking about? Me neither.

    John Hird
    Manchester, England

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  3. John, thanks for your comment. Although I enjoyed it more than Amy, I think you could be right about it it having added impact because you watched it when you were 12. On the other hand, I think BR could stand up against North and South (our equivalent in the US) any day. --Kim

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  4. Anonymous3:12 PM

    My dear Mr. Hird,

    I was 9 in 1981 and all I wanted to do was curl up with Anthony Andrew's teddy bear and cuddle. Snore = quite the bore.

    Yours,
    ANR

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  5. "North and South" today seems a lot more cheesy than it did back when i was in grade school swooning over Swayze. But at least it had loads more action (and by that i mean both the war kind and the sex kind!) than BR did... -- Amy

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  6. Anonymous8:16 PM

    The 1981 "Brideshead Revisited" is the most complete, artfully devised and tasteful of all miniseries to come out of England. My final word.

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  7. When I was 9 all I wanted to do was cuddle up with Anthony Andrews, having just seen in in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Yum.

    Btw, I was just outside Castle Howard this weekend, where they filmed the BR series! Still haven't seen the series, but am intrigued by the Law/Bettany remake idea.

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  8. Anonymous1:04 PM

    The new 2008 movie version is going to concentrate soley on the relationship between Charles and Julia. Poor lovable Sebastian apparently is not interesting enough to the new filmmakers. Too bad... I was looking forward to a "Brokeback" for the upper crust set. Damn! I'll just have to stick with 1981.

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