I’ve completed a series of episode-by-episode reviews of the marvelous television miniseries Brideshead Revisited. I’ve decided to make it easier to access these posts as part of a group by making this page as an index. I’ve also added a short synopsis of each episode so that you can find what you’re looking for quickly.… Read More Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Laurence Olivier, Diana Quick (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Daniel Day-Lewis is, by virtually any standard short of the box office, the greatest film actor we’ve ever had. Nine times out of ten I think so. And then, that one time out of ten, I think… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E11, “Brideshead Revisited”
Dir. Christopher Nolan. Starring Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy Spoilers follow Dunkirk is bent on undoing its emotional work through its structure. The movie is already bound, even at a week old, to reach Memento levels of discussion of its timeline. Three plots intersect over the course of the film. One focuses on a… Read More Dunkirk (2017)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) It takes the greater part of the first episode, all of the second, and all but the last thirty seconds of the third to build us up to a state of great joy in Charles and Sebastian’s… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E10, “A Twitch Upon the Thread”
Dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Starring Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Jane Asher (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) “Oh, yes” Charles says. “He was the forerunner.” The beginning of this episode charts, as every other episode must, really, the ongoing changes and worsening of the Flytes. Yet it seems that everyone is very much the… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E9, “Orphans of the Storm”
Dir. Stephen Frears. Starring Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day-Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey The character structure of My Beautiful Laundrette, written by Hanif Kureishi, is about as perfect as they come in movies. Hussein (Roshan Seth), Nasser (Jaffrey), and Hussein’s son, Omar (Warnecke) are each placed in conjunction with each other; they are the sides of the prism… Read More My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Dir. Karel Reisz. Starring Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Hilton McRae Movies don’t usually come with morals (glory to God in the highest for that), but occasionally one comes across a film which contains within itself a parable. The French Lieutenant’s Woman is such a film, which uses the story of a pair of protagonists to create… Read More The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
Dir. Roland Joffe. Starring Haing S. Ngor, Sam Waterston, John Malkovich The camera rarely stops moving in this film. Even when you’d expect it to sit still, it so rarely does. Most directors, I think, would keep their camera stationary when Dith Pran (Ngor) walks towards it near the film’s end. All he’s doing is… Read More The Killing Fields (1984)
Dir. Roland Joffe. Starring Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Robert De Niro Father Gabriel (Irons) is the only European Jesuit priest above the waterfall who is unwilling to fight for the Guarani with violence. Rodrigo (De Niro), whose skill with violence is unquestioned, comes to Gabriel to be blessed before joining the battle. “I cannot bless… Read More The Mission (1986)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Jane Asher, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Like anyone who has just been broken up with – perhaps “divorced” might be an even better word – Charles veers from haughty calm to disconsolate sadness. Charles is back from Morocco in this episode (only, about… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E8, “Brideshead Deserted”
Seeing Things Secondhand 