Brideshead Revisited (2008)

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Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The movie tells the story of Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) and his relationships with the Flyte family over the course of some 20 or so years, although it seems shorter in this version. The aristocratic Flyte family own an enormous country house, the eponymous Brideshead. Charles is of middle class background, has no brothers or sisters and shares a house with his cold and eccentric father, Edward (Patrick Malahide). He leaves the family home to go up to Oxford, where he meets Sebastian Flyte (Ben Wishaw), the younger son of the head of the Flyte family, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon). The Flyte family are a difficult bunch; the father has run away to live in Venice with his mistress and the mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), a devout Catholic, is incredibly manipulative and a constant source of angst for Sebastian. The other members of the family include: Lord Brideshead (or 'Bridey' played by Ed Stoppard), the older brother who is very proper and stiff upper lipped but lacking in humanity; sister Julia (Hayley Atwell) who is the third most important character in the story; and younger sister Cordelia (who is really just a bit part in this version). Greta Scacchi also appears as Marchmain's mistress Cara.

    The original series told the story over about 11 hours and was languidly paced but included lots of character developing scenes for all the main characters. This new version seemed rushed and almost like a Reader's Digest abridged version. The comparative lack of running time in a two hour movie also seems to have driven a need for the film makers to be much less subtle and more strident regarding the characters. Therefore, in this version, Sebastian is immediately and definitely gay (and lusting after Charles) and his mother is a one-note Catholic maniac without any other personality traits. In the series and the novel these things are much more subtle which makes the story more interesting. This problems may be less evident for those who have not seen the series. There are also a number of other changes made from the novel to the screen which will jar with fans of the novel.

    On the more positive side, the casting and acting is generally good with Matthew Goode playing a quality Charles Ryder and Emma Thompson doing a great job with a badly written character. Despite getting quality actors for Lord Marchmain and Charles' father, their roles are marginalised when compared to those characters in the series (where they were played by John Gielgud & Laurence Olivier). The production design is of high quality along with the costumes and the beautiful cinematography. The score by Adrian Johnston is lush and warm consisting mostly of piano. The use of the same house as the series for Brideshead is a good idea, however, I don't feel that this movie makes as much good use of the house as the series did, where it was nearly another character in the story. One other thing about this film which surprised is how dark most of the scenes were especially in the second half which is very much in contrast to the series.

    This is certainly an interesting film to see for fans of the book or the original series, however, it certainly suffers in comparison.

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Video

    The video quality is very good with no significant issues.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout. Shadow detail is decent but some scenes were a little murky. This is possibly by artistic choice. There are some mild MPEG artefacts especially when characters are shown in close up with fast moving backgrounds. Examples can be seen at 38:29, 55:15 & 102:30.

    The colour was very good but the darkness of many scenes reduced the requirement for bold vibrant colours.

    There were no obvious artefacts other than those already mentioned.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired which were clear and easy to read.

    There is a layer change at 72:35 which was not noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains two audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

    The music by Adrian Johnston sounds wonderful on this DVD and is one of the strongest parts of the viewing experience.

    The surround speakers were surprisingly well used for such a film with lots of atmospheric effects such as the sounds of the hunt in the distance or music.

    The subwoofer use was well used adding bass to the music and various rumbles and other LFE effects.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing, nada, zero, zilch.

Menu

    The menu features music and is still. It allows for scene selection and audio selection.

    The Region 1 version misses out on the following from the Region 4 version:

• The stereo soundtrack option

    The Region 4 version misses out on the following from the Region 1 version:

• Audio Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Making of Featurette
• Spanish subtitles

   Region 1 wins the day.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall