Introducing Brideshead Revisited

Introducing Brideshead Revisited - page 2

01-10-2008 15:20

Lord Sebastian Flyte - Ben Whishaw

Sebastian is the character that has experienced the greatest change between book and film as director Julian Jarrold made the character more explicitly gay.

Sebastian enjoys the pleasures his privileged life has afforded him, but he also senses that something is missing, and he tries to drown his frequent episodes of depression in alcohol and, unlike his family, an atheist.

But Sebastian struggles with jealousy when he sees a relationship begin to develop between Ryder and his sister Julia as he wants Ryder�s love for himself.

Lady Julia Flyte - Hayley Atwell

Sister to Sebastian Julia is the love interest of Charles Ryder. However she marries another man, a Catholic (although later it turns out that this man became Catholic to enable marrying her).

Unhappy in her marriage Julia embarks on an affair with Ryder.

Lady Marchmain - Emma Thompson

A vital part of Brideshead is that of Lady Marchmain. A staunch Roman Catholic, she is the religious centre of the novel and the film, binding all the characters together and, in the case of the Marchmain children, largely informing who they are, directing their decisions both subconsciously when they were growing up and consciously as they become adults.

The film uses Lady Marchmain to subtly explore the complexities of religion and the deep hold which the family�s faith has upon the Marchmain children and the difficulties Charles faces as an atheist trying to comprehend the power of that faith.