Director Julian Jarrold, responsible for last summer’s literary blockbuster Becoming Jane, has now topped himself with a big-screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s romantic saga, Brideshead Revisited. Jarrold’s adaptation clocks in at far less than the 14-hour miniseries from 1981 that made Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, as gay lovers Charles and Sebastian, household names—at least in households that watched PBS. This version should do the same for Matthew Goode, who plays the title role of Charles Ryder, the handsome innocent at the center of the story.
Set in England before World War II and told in flashback, the film focuses on what happens when Charles gets involved with the impossibly rich and devout Catholic Marchmain family via his close friendship with their two older children—the drunken, gay aesthete Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) and Sebastian’s beautiful and mysterious sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell). Charles’ intense friendship with Sebastian blossoms after he visits Brideshead, the family’s baronial estate—and a powerful kiss between the two suggests a relationship of physical intimacy or unrequited love on Sebastian’s part. Later, Charles and Julia also share a doozy of a kiss and—with this being heavy, romantic drama—one kiss has the power to change the lives of all concerned.
Charles has won the approval of Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) —a staunch Catholic who rules the roost with an iron first in her velvet glove— but when he incurs her displeasure, the film reaches its dramatic height and their confrontation is thrilling to witness. Like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, Thompson never has to raise her voice. She’s so assured of her position and her religious convictions she doesn’t question her actions, and her dismissal of Charles annihilates him emotionally. Thompson, who appears in only five scenes, is absolutely riveting and you want a lot more of her. Goode, taking on his first starring role (he has had notable parts in Match Point, Imagine Me & You and The Lookout), is wondrous. He lets you see the conflict confronting Charles—his need for love; his susceptibility to this overpowering world; and the intoxicating effect that both Sebastian and Julia have on him.
Brideshead Revisited is an epic with beautiful shots, score (by Adrian Johnson), costumes and art direction—a movie that honors its literary source and deeply satisfies.
Parvez Sharma’s A Jihad for Love is a revealing documentary about gay Muslims—two words used to signify personal identity that would seem as compatible as oil and water. Nevertheless, as Sharma’s film vividly demonstrates, these two warring dichotomies often coexist in people whose positions regarding religion and sexuality are immovable. The movie, which draws on footage shot in Iran, Paris, Turkey, South Africa and Canada, is as compelling in its way as For the Bible Tells Me So, Daniel Karslake’s film which presented first person stories of gay men and women from Evangelical families. Sharma will be present for screenings during the opening weekend of the film, which is taking place at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, beginning Fri., July 25.
Never mind the emotional consequences of coming out—this is a religion where revealing your gay sexuality can literally mean death. Sharma points this out as the film moves from country to country, tracking down random gay Muslims brave enough to face such possible wrath (many who have fled from their homes to more tolerate countries). We are presented with their stories—catalogues of human indignities suffered by gays for centuries. A man is arrested and jailed for years for standing in line to get into a gay disco in Cairo; an Iranian man is arrested and given 100 lashes after attending a party with other gays; and so on.
Like other repressed gays, the plea for tolerance resonates, as does the bravery of the individuals profiled. Arsham, one of four gay Muslims living in Turkey after fleeing Iran and awaiting word on whether he’ll be allowed to emigrate to Canada, says with exasperation, ‘Why do they think the sky has to be the same color for everyone?’ When he gets permission to move to Canada, the moment is bittersweet. Arriving at his new home, far from his family, he says, ‘Today is my new birthday.’ Then a moment later he breaks down and cries out, ‘How can I be free when others cannot?’
It’s a heartbreaking moment in a film filled with them. Visit www.siskelfilmcenter.com.
If the relationship portrayed in Chris & Don: A Love Story were a modern-day one, it would hardly seem remarkable. But given the time period when it began and flourished—the repressive early 1950s—it’s sort of extraordinary. ‘Chris’ was writer Christopher Isherwood, best known for The Berlin Stories, which formed the basis for Cabaret; ‘Don’ is Don Bachardy, who was Isherwood’s lover from 1952 to 1986 (Isherwood’s death) and, eventually, a renowned portraitist. When the two met, Chris was 46 and Don was just 16. The 30-year age difference—given the proliferation of sugar daddies and boy toys in the gay world—isn’t so amazing, though the openness of the couple about their sexuality, given the time period, certainly is.
What really helps filmmakers Tina Mascara and Guido Santi relate the portrait of this enduring gay relationship, however, is the seemingly endless home-movie footage the stylish couple shot of themselves. There’s an abundance of vintage footage of the ‘the old horse’ and ‘the kitty cat’ (their pet names for each other). We see them on vacation, at home, hobnobbing with famous friends and deeply in love—particularly in a snippet that shows the young couple canoodling in a gondola in Venice and not giving a tinker’s damn that their gondolier or anyone else is looking on in disapproval. These home movies—slices of a gay history rarely glimpsed—are worth the rest of the charming movie, which includes guest appearances by Liza Minnelli, Leslie Caron, Michael York and others. The movie opens Fri., July 25, at Landmark Century Centre Cinema.