Reunion with Brideshead (TV production)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Goodbye to Brideshead |
| Original title | Brideshead Revisited |
 | |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1981 |
| length | Original version 659, German version 653 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK without age restriction |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Charles Sturridge Michael Lindsay-Hogg |
| script | John Mortimer |
| production |
Derek Granger Martin Thompson |
| music | Geoffrey Burgon |
| camera | Ray Goode |
| cut | Anthony Ham |
| occupation | |
| |
Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh 's novel of the same name for television.
The first broadcast of the almost eleven-hour film took place from October to December 1981 in eleven parts as part of the joint supporting program of the regional British ITV broadcasters . For the German dubbed version, the material was divided into seven episodes of different lengths, which were first broadcast from December 7th to 23rd, 1983 at irregular intervals by the ARD's first program .
action
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English original version 1981
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German dubbed version 1983
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- 1. Arcadia found again
In the early spring of 1944, Captain Charles Ryder and his company were transferred to Brideshead Castle, which he knew. A flashback, which makes up most of the film, tells the story of his relationship with this castle: In the academic year 1922/23, Charles, son of the widowed London art dealer Edward Ryder from the upper bourgeoisie, befriends as a history student at Oxford with his eccentric and dandy fellow student Lord Sebastian Flyte. Sebastian is the younger son of the lord of the castle, the Marquess of Marchmain . Sebastian's homosexual disposition and his inclination to alcohol are indicated.
- 2. Pale light of day
In the summer of 1923 Charles spends wonderful weeks as a guest on Brideshead and gets to know Sebastian's three siblings: The older brother, who bears the courtesy title Earl of Brideshead , the second title of nobility of the family, and is called "Bridey", is a serious, brittle and deeply catholic young man, thus a completely different type than Sebastian. Cordelia, the youngest still attending school, is also an ardent Catholic and tries several times to convert the avowed agnostic Charles. Sebastian describes his other sister Julia and himself as "half pagans". The passionate painter Charles creates a mural in the castle. With Charles, Sebastian visits his father, who has separated from his wife and lives in Venice with his lover Cara. Lord Marchmain once converted to Catholicism for the sake of his wife, but is now a sharp critic of religion who only feels hatred for his strictly Catholic wife. Cara talks to Charles about a "romantic" relationship between him and Sebastian; Charles doesn't comment on it. Cara has also not escaped the fact that Sebastian threatens to become a drinker. After the holidays, Charles meets Lady Marchmain in Oxford, who approaches him with great kindness and thanks him for his friendship with her son. When Sebastian, while drunk at the wheel of a car in which Charles and their college friend Lord “Boy” Mulcaster are also sitting, causes an accident with sheet metal damage, they get away with small fines through the mediation of Rex Mottram, a friend of the Marchmain family. Mottram is a 30-year-old Canadian businessman and MP. Between Christmas 1923 and spring 1924, Sebastian became more and more depressed and became more and more addicted to alcohol.
- 3. Sebastian against the world
During the Easter break in 1924, Sebastian can no longer hide his loss of control over alcohol consumption from his family. Charles has to watch helplessly and helplessly, although he takes care of his friend as best he can. When Sebastian attracts negative attention in Oxford after one of his excessive drinking, he has to leave university. Charles breaks off his studies and goes to Paris in the summer to attend an art school. After Christmas he was invited to Brideshead Castle and found a very depressed Sebastian who was visibly suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Lady Marchmain prevents her son from serving alcohol, has his accounts blocked and has him under constant surveillance. Charles' objection that such reprisals make Sebastian even more addictive is not heard. In order to prove to Sebastian that he stands by him, he gives him money at his request, knowing that this will be converted into alcohol. Sebastian evades surveillance by his brother Bridey during a drive hunt and gets drunk in a pub. Lady Marchmain accuses Charles of maliciously stabbing the family in the back. Charles leaves Brideshead firmly convinced that he will never come back.
- 4. The hidden hook
In the spring of 1925, Charles was unexpectedly visited by Rex Mottram in Paris. Sebastian escaped Mottram when Mottram wanted to take him to Zurich for rehab. Rex reports to Charles the news of the Marchmain family: Lady Marchmain is sick and does not have long to live; she also regretted having tackled Charles so hard. The family is suffering from financial difficulties and he, Mottram, wants to marry Julia, who is deeply in love with him, before her 21st birthday. Lady Marchmain, who has concerns about Mottram as her future son-in-law, has agreed to the engagement on the condition that it be kept secret for the time being. Sebastian cannot be found.
In order to have a glamorous church wedding , assisted by a cardinal, Rex wants to become a Catholic - without any inner conviction. A few days before Rex's admission to church and wedding, Bridey finds out that Rex was married and divorced in Canada. A Catholic marriage can therefore not take place. Julia breaks away from the commandments of her church and marries Rex in silence and without the participation of her family in front of a Protestant pastor. - In order to fight against the workers in the general strike in April 1926, shortly after Juliet's marriage, Charles returned from Paris to England. Here he is ordered to the Marchmain's London domicile, the “Marchmain House”, and received by Julia. It was learned that Sebastian lived in Morocco. Lady Marchmain was dying and wanted Charles to bring Sebastian back. Charles travels to Fès , where Sebastian, meanwhile a seedy drinker, lives in poor conditions with the German Kurt, a former Foreign Legionnaire. He finds him on the way to recovery from pneumonia in a hospital. In Fez, Charles receives news of Lady Marchmain's death. Sebastian, who is discharged from the hospital, refuses to travel to England to attend his mother's funeral.
- 5. In the storm
A few weeks after Lady Marchmain's death Charles was commissioned by Bridey to make four commemorative paintings of Marchmain House. Because of the debt, the family has to sell their London townhouse, which is then to be demolished. - A leap in time of almost ten years into 1936: Charles Ryder, meanwhile a successful architectural painter, meets with his wife Celia, the sister of Boy Mulcaster, in New York after a two-year tour through Latin America. The relationship between the couple is cool, and Charles hardly seems to be interested in their two children, whose youngest he has not yet seen. On the crossing to England, Charles sees Julia again, who is also on the ship. When Celia lies seasick in the cabin for several days during a storm, Charles and Julia get closer. She reports that after one year she has regretted marrying Rex Mottram, who was not loyal to her from the start. Charles mentions that Celia is cheating on him. Charles and Julia sleep together in Julia's cabin. Immediately after arriving in London, there is a successful exhibition of Charles' travel pictures, and word of his affair with Julia has already got around.
- 6. A jerk on the leash
Summer 1938: Julia has lived for over two years with Charles in concubinage at Castle Brideshead. The situation is made more difficult by the fact that Mottram still officially lives in the castle. Bridey comes with the news that she has become engaged to the admiral's widow Beryl Muspratt. When Julia's question why he doesn't introduce her to them, Bridey coolly replies that as a strict Catholic, Mrs. Muspratt will not accept an invitation to a house whose mistress is in sin. Julia then bursts into tears. Charles notes that Julia was less offended by Bridey's tactlessness, but rather by the conflict of conscience between her religious upbringing and her actual life situation. In order to bring at least some order into their lives, she agrees with Charles that they both want to advance their divorces and get married. - In the fall, Cordelia returns, after a failed attempt to become a nun, who worked as a nurse in the Spanish Civil War. She tells Charles to have visited Sebastian, who lives in Tunis in the care of monks and has become very religious. His friend Kurt was deported to Germany and ended up as a prisoner in a concentration camp, where he hanged himself. Sebastian is still a drinker. - After Bridey's wedding, Julia and Charles want to move away.
- 7. The old lord
At the beginning of 1939, the Marquess of Marchmain, suffering from a heart condition, and his partner Cara von Venice returned to Brideshead Castle to spend the last months of his life here. Therefore Charles and Julia stay with his company in the castle. The worse the father's condition becomes in the following months, the greater, if unsuccessful, pressure Bridey exerts on him to return to the bosom of the Church and to receive the sacraments. Charles is angry that one does not want to let the old man die in peace his way. Julia, however, cannot understand Charles' vehement criticism of religion, which strains their relationship. Out of anger at his son and also out of dislike for his wife, Lord Marchmain changes his will and appoints Julia instead of Bridey as heiress of Castle Brideshead. Since Bridey's wife is a few years older than him, no more heirs are to be expected from this side anyway. The lord hopes that Julia will have children with Charles, since after the dignity of the margrave and count has expired, the family's old baron title can also be inherited in the female line. Charles is divorced in June 1939, Julia's divorce is due to take place in September. Charles notices that Julia speaks less and less about the planned marriage. When Lord Marchmain comes to an end in the middle of summer, Bridey and Cordelia are absent. Against Charles' protest, Julia calls the priest. Although the old lord can no longer utter his will, the priest gives him the anointing and gives him absolution . Surprisingly, Lord Marchmain crosses himself as a sign of his reconciliation with God. For Charles this is a kind of conversion experience that shakes his agnosticism . When Bridey and Cordelia arrive from London, their father is already dead. Julia explains to Charles that, despite their love, she has to part with him in order not to lose divine grace. Charles replies that he had suspected for a long time that this relationship would have no future for religious reasons. - Jump in time to the framework story in 1944: After Charles has taken quarters in the castle as an officer, he visits the old nanny Miss Hawkins, who still lives on Brideshead. He learns that Julia, who owns the castle and who has taken her maiden name again, is working with Cordelia in the women's service in the army in Palestine. Bridey and his volunteer company are also stationed here. In the castle chapel, Charles, who has evidently become a devout Catholic, kneels in front of the tabernacle , prays and crosses himself.
background
Filming began in the summer of 1979 on the island of Gozo , where the scenes set in Morocco were filmed. Due to a strike by the film technicians, production was interrupted for several months. In November 1979 filming was resumed and lasted until January 1981. The baroque Castle Howard in Yorkshire served as the fictional Brideshead Castle - as in the later film adaptation of 2008 . Other locations included London, Venice and Oxford. The rooms in Hertford College where Evelyn Waugh lived during his student days were used as living quarters for the character Charles Ryder . The scenes played at sea were filmed on Queen Elizabeth 2 . Regional television company Granada Television, part of the ITV network, put production costs at £ 4.5 million , while independent estimates put total costs at around £ 11 million. Thus reunion with Brideshead is considered to be the most expensive British television production to date.
Evelyn Waugh gave the two main parts of his novel the headings Et in Arcadia ego and A Twitch Upon the Thread . The second heading comes from one of the Pater Brown novels by GK Chesterton and is quoted in Waugh's novel and in the film adaptation: “I caught him (the thief) with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still bring him back with a twitch upon the thread. " In addition to A Twitch Upon the Thread (German version: Der Jerk an der Leine ), The Unseen Hook (German version: The hidden hook ) was also used as the title of part of the film adaptation. Both passages of the Chesterton quote allude to Waugh's intention to demonstrate the work of divine grace, which none of his protagonists in the novel can deny.
reception
In March 1982, before the production was bought by German television, Der Spiegel reported on the high ratings and the great media interest that the multi-part series had aroused both in Great Britain and in the USA. The 2005 television encyclopedia wrote of the reception: “The British viewers reveled in nostalgia en masse, and the drama was sold to television stations around the world. It rained awards for actors and production. The film also aroused great interest in Germany. ”During and shortly after the months of broadcasting in Great Britain, a fad was observed that schoolchildren and students - modeled on Sebastian Flyte and his teddy“ Aloysius ”- with a teddy bear at school or university published. Sociological attempts to explain the great success of the film with the audience aim at the turn to conservative values ( Thatcherism in Great Britain, Reagonomics in the USA, “ spiritual and moral turn ” in the Federal Republic of Germany) which a suitable basis for the nostalgic transfiguration of times past.
The multi-part series received seven BAFTA awards for television productions in the categories of Best Actor (Anthony Andrews), Best Set Design , Best Dramatic Series / Multi-Part , Best Makeup , Best Costumes , Best Sound and Best Editing . Laurence Olivier received an Emmy for his portrayal of Lord Marchmain . The entire production was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Best TV Film and Anthony Andrews for Best Actor . There was a Broadcasting Press Guild Award in the category Best Dramatic Multi-Part . Nominations had been made for other BAFTA Awards, Emmys and Golden Globes.
In 2000, the British Film Institute put Brideshead's Revival at number ten on its list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programs . The Time Magazine started production from its list of The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME on.
Image carrier
- Evelyn Waugh's reunion with Brideshead. Brideshead Revisited. KSM, Hochheim 2009 (3 DVD with booklet, German and English).
Web links
- Brideshead Head in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Broadcast dates of the reunion with Brideshead on fernsehserien.de, accessed April 30, 2011.
- ^ Charles Sturridge: The Making of Brideshead. A Note from the Director , in: Brideshead Revisited. [DVD]. Acorn Media, London 2002, booklet (unpaginated).
- ↑ Evelyn Waugh's reunion with Brideshead. Brideshead Revisited. [DVD]. KSM, Hochheim 2009, booklet (unpaginated).
- ↑ a b c David Oswell: Brideshead Revisited , Museum of Broadcast Communications accessed 30 April 2011th
- ↑ Evelyn Waugh: Reunion with Brideshead. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1982, ISBN 3-548-20232-2 , p. 208: “I caught him (the thief) with an invisible hook on an invisible string that is long enough for him to wander to the end of the world and can still be retrieved with a jerk on the cord. "
- ↑ Quoted from: Paul Elmen: Brideshead Revisited. A Twitch Upon the Thread ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Christian Century, May 26, 1982, pp. 630f., accessed April 30, 2011.
- ^ Paul Elmen: Brideshead Revisited. A Twitch Upon the Thread ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Christian Century, May 26, 1982, pp. 630f., accessed April 30, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Magnificent decline , in: Der Spiegel from March 15, 1982 (No. 11), accessed April 30, 2011.
- ↑ Michael Reufsteck / Stefan Niggemeier : Das Fernsehlexikon . Goldmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-30124-6 , p. 1348.
- ^ British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Television Nominations 1981 , accessed April 30, 1011.
- ^ Internet Movie Database: Awards for Brideshead Revisited , accessed April 30, 2011.
- ^ British Film Institute: The BFI TV 100 , accessed April 30, 2011.
- ↑ Time: The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME , accessed April 30, 2011.
