Tea at Trianon: Brideshead Regurgitated

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 5, 2008

Brideshead Regurgitated

Andrew Cusack discusses the new production of Brideshead Revisited.

Well, the trailer for the film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel “Brideshead Revisited” is out, and the film is slated for a summer release here in the States. (Trailer | Official Site). Waugh fans can but lament that, whereas Waugh said the book was essentially about “the operation of divine grace”, the screenwriter of this adaptation openly admitted that the script “turns God into a villain."

How disappointing! Share

4 comments:

Enbrethiliel said...: +JMJ+

It seems to me that it's the screenwriter who is the villain--if only for twisting such a beautifully written novel to fit whatever his (her?) agenda happens to be! =(

At the same time, I can see how someone who doesn't believe in grace would hardly see Waugh's novel in a kindly light. No one gets a "quick and dirty happiness" (to borrow a phrase from the Seraphic Single) and the ending is bittersweet even to those of us who know where Waugh was coming from.; May 5, 2008 at 10:35:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, good insights, Enbrethiliel.; May 5, 2008 at 10:38:00 AM EDT
Ana Braga-Henebry said...: Oh, Noooo! The photography looks so gorgeous, the sets, and I even like some of the actors -- I always thought Charles Ryder would look younger, handsomer than Jeremy Irons-- but, like Cusak says in his blog, it will all boil down to if they do the scene of the Lord's death well...; May 5, 2008 at 12:30:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: It is frustrating when productions have so much potential....we'll see how it goes.....; May 5, 2008 at 12:58:00 PM EDT