I knew I’d seen an Oscar-worthy performance when, at the end of Brideshead Revisited, I truly detested Lady Marchmain. Not that anyone would be fond of the cold, calculating, religiously abusive woman, but she was played by one of my favorite actors, Emma Thompson.

I would guess that the highest praise you could give an actor is that she became the character — and Thompson has been recognized many times for her talent. She won an Emmy for my personal favorite of her roles, playing a closeted Midwesterner (and lesbian) on Ellen. If you’ve never seen that episode, find it — it’s a brilliant piece of self-parody.

She also won the New York Film Critics Award, Golden Globe and Academy Award as Best Actress for Howard’s End. … continue reading

The trailer is now out for the upcoming big-screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited. Set in England in the period between the first and second world wars, Brideshead chronicles the attachment of Charles Ryder to a glamorous, aristocratic Catholic family: first the son, Sebastian Flyte, whom he meets as an undergraduate at Oxford, and then Sebastian’s sister, Julia.

The film will be out in the States on limited release from July 25, and in the U.K. October 3. The trailer leaves me very torn over the question: will I go and see the film?

Let’s start with the good things about the trailer: The film features three women whom I am always very happy to see on either the big or the small screen. Emma Thompson stars as Lady Marchmain, the elegant and subtly controlling mother of Sebastian and Julia.

The beautiful young actress Hayley Atwell (whom I have admired before on this site) will get her first significant big-screen exposure in the States as Julia Flyte. … continue reading

I have very, very mixed feelings about the upcoming big-screen version of Brideshead Revisited. On the one hand, I want to hate it with every fiber of my being. It’s a remake of a television version from the '80s that seemed perfect to me the first time round. The screenwriter, Andrew Davies (he of Tipping the Velvet fame) has stated in interviews that his aim is to shift the focus of the story, from the memorably homerotic bond between university friends Charles and Sebastian, to the tragic affair between Charles and Sebastian’s sister Julia. Which is a great idea: because what the big screen has really lacked for a long time now is another love story about star-crossed heterosexuals.

On the other hand, the film stars Hayley Atwell.

Atwell probably isn’t known at all currently in the States. Twenty-five years old, she only recently got her start in the U.K., starring in the 2006 BBC drama The Line of Beauty as Catherine Fedden, a restless girl from a wealthy family who suffers from manic depression. Although the drama centered around another young British actor, Dan Stevens, who starred as Nick, it’s probably fair to say that it was Atwell who really caught the attention. … continue reading