FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Brideshead Revisited - Complete Series [DVD] [1981]

Brideshead Revisited - Complete Series [DVD] [1981]
enlarge	Directors: Charles Sturridge, Michael Lindsay-Hogg Actors: Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, John Gielgud Studio: ITV Studios Home Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£39.99~~ Buy New: £12.15 as of 7/9/2010 21:18 BST details You Save: £27.84 (70%) New (23) Used (10) from £10.00 Seller: gzoop Rating: 42 reviews Sales Rank: 469 Format: Box set, PAL Language: English (Subtitled) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Number Of Discs: 4 Running Time: 663 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4 Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5037115294333 ASIN: B001CWLFHC Theatrical Release Date: 1981 Release Date: September 1, 2008 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 42 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next » ONe of the greatest pieces of TV - ever! October 4, 2008 Alan Gent 115 out of 125 found this review helpful Quite simply this is brilliant. Producing the book as a TV series gave the director the opportunity to indulge in Waugh's lush and vivid text and whole sections of the book are quoted verbatim. And of course, in hindsight, the casting was inspired, with Jeremy Irons as Rider and Anthony Andrews as the rather beautiful Sebastian Flyte. But don't forget such cameo's as Nikolas Grace as the effete Anthony Blanche - masterful! The film I understand, leaves a lot to be desired, so better to buy this AND read the book. You will regret buying neither. Television's greatest moment! July 10, 2009 Thomas Benn (Shropshire, UK) 17 out of 18 found this review helpful I can't think of any other television programme as perfect as Brideshead Revisited. The acting throughout is amazing, with the standout performances of Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick complemented by cameos by such legendary actors as Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud. Granada decided to pull out all the stops when producing this adaptation of Waugh's masterly work, determined to show they could produce drama to rival the BBC's lavish productions. With Brideshead, they succeeded admirably. This also stands alone as arguably the only example of a production where the script literally is the book. There are hardly any omissions, and because of this the 11-part story is able to breathe and the characters really come to life. The entire production was shot on location, at a number of sites from Yorkshire's stately Castle Howard to the canals of Venice. The story is told through the eyes of Charles Ryder (Irons) who looks back on his youth at Oxford university from the Second World War. The story moves froms the decadence of the 1920s right through to the War, and shows Charles' relationship with the Flyte family, an enormously rich Catholic family. I'll say no more on the story, other than as a piece of entertaining escapism, this is without peer. So, as I think you can gather, I highly recommend this - it's the DVD I have watched so much I've had to by another as my last one has literally fallen apart. The special features are excellent as well, with a making of documentary, commentaries on a couple of episodes by the actors and producer, as well as a great blooper reel. I hate ending in a quote, but in this case I'll indulge myself. "But I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiosity and the faint, unrecognized apprehension that here, at last, I should find that low door in the wall, which others, I knew, had found before me, which opened on an enclosed and enchanted garden, which was somewhere, not overlooked by any window, in the heart of that grey city." Television of the highest quality November 13, 2008 Mr G (Lisbon) 44 out of 49 found this review helpful This is a staggeringly good piece of TV drama which has justifiably become a classic. It's hard to imagine any producer today taking the time to explore a novel in the way this adaptation does, a full 11 episodes which allow the viewer to luxuriate in the story and thoroughly explore the characters. There has always been debate over whether there was a mythological "Golden Age of TV", but I think the early 1980s saw something quite remarkable at Granada Studios, at least in the field of period adaptations, and Brideshead might just be the pinnacle. Evelyn Waugh's novel is a heady evocation of time and place, as well as an exploration of spirituality, and the series captures all this with consummate skill, from the glorious period detail to the brilliant script by John Mortimer. The acting is simply faultless, to be expected when talent like Irons and Andrews stands alongside veteran greats like Olivier, Gielgud and Claire Bloom. In sum, I enjoyed this series immensely. Craft and class like this don't come together very often, more's the pity. Sublime May 9, 2010 G. Holland 4 out of 4 found this review helpful I hadn't watched Brideshead since it was first broadcast and always knew that I would purchase the DVD at some point. Watching it so much later I realised that it was probably the best classical drama to come from TV. John Mortimer of course wrote a brilliant script that was faithful to the book which was in any case beautifully written by Waugh. How can a drama be spread out over 8 hrs? I would say, How could it not be. The underlying theme of catholicism and how it profoundly affects the Marchmaine family is there lurking in the corners of all their lives and of course ultimately it destroys any hope of fulfillment and happiness. Lady Marchmaine (Claire Bloom) is superb as the rigid,devout catholic who manages through her cloying sweetness and martyrdom to keep her family tied to her religious fervour through guilt and fear. Another theme that is not particularly overt is the acceptance and almost dismissal of the fact that they are extremely wealthy people and their sense that this is how it is and always will be. They are cocooned in their world of privilege. Gielgud is brilliant as a man in an emotional waste land, leading a somewhat reclusive life and quite unable to offer Charles any emotional support (nor has ever been able to do). Charles Ryder could only have been played by Jeremy Irons in my view. He, also like Sebastian craves emotional fulfillment and for a short time finds it with Sebastian and then with Julia He revelled in his new found circle of friends and a sense of belonging with the Marchmaine family and believed he had found a new direction in his life that gave him satisfaction, breaking from the past. Charles then was to face bitter disappointment as he discovered that despite his best effort in pursuit of happiness, life can deal some mighty blows, so that although in later life he is able to see from afar what might have been he is now resigned to perhaps an aimless existance wary of any emotional attachment. He has become world weary. For the Marchmaine family members there is no escape from the tentacles of their mother's religious fervour which extends one feels to the far reaches of the world. Even her husband who loaths her is unable to resist the final sacrament when at deaths door. Julia denies herself any happiness out of fear and guilt. Cordelia follows in her mother's footsteps to some extent and one gets the feeling that she could have led a very different life but inevitably she will be a spinster. Bridie living by a strict religious code finally moves into a sterile world with Beryl and of course Sebastian who fights all the way but finally succumbs. Waugh understood and was fascinated by the great wealthy houses of that time. Probably "A Handful of Dust" was by far his great book but Brideshead is a worthy second. I would recommend this film to anyone who has the time to really drink in this wonderful adaptation, and also the time to think about all the layers of social norms contained in it, the guilt & repression associated with religion and wealth and the pursuit and denial of aspirations & happiness. The Beautiful and the Damned November 1, 2008 Graham Chapman (London) 39 out of 44 found this review helpful This was 'watercooler' TV in the 80s,(it wouldn't be today, of course). When I first saw Brideshead all the interest - and the talk - seemed to be about Sebastian (the character and the actor playing him). New Romantics nicked the fashion ideas, families went to visit Castle Howard at the weekends. Redtops found a few half-witted Oxford students clutching teddybears and took photos to amuse their readers. And there was a sudden increase in the number of (Blair-like) conversions to Catholicism. Watching it all again, I appreciated so much that hadn't at the time moved me - the romance between Charles and Julia, the sense of damnation hanging over the characters. I've put Brideshead away now, but I am sure I'll revisit it again in another 27 years time, God willing. Showing reviews 1-5 of 42 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next »

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