First filmed as an 11-hour television series in 1981, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is revisited and condensed into just over two hours in the cinema version directed by Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane), writes Michael Dwyer.
Opening in the US today and due for release here in October, it features Ben Whishaw (Perfume) as Sebastian Flyte and Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Charles Ryder.
The New York Times website features a slide-show on Irish costume designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh's creations for the movie, and her comments. On her costumes for Lady Marchmain, the matriarch played by Emma Thompson, she says: "I felt like she could never look dishevelled. She always had to look like 10 maids had dressed her in the morning."
Hollywood A-list in Dublin
And now, a traffic alert: motorists are advised to steer well clear of O'Connell Street in Dublin around 6.30pm next Wednesday, when Adam Sandler (right) is due to walk the red carpet into the Savoy for the Irish premiere of You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Joining him will be co-star Rob Schneider.
Sandler collaborated on the screenplay for the comedy, in which he plays a Mossad agent who fakes his own death so that he can pursue his dream of becoming a hairdresser in New York. The movie opens here on August 15th. The Hollywood Reporter review noted: "As a commando- turned-hairdresser with superheroic strength and a supersized crotch, Adam Sandler gets the Israeli accent and the disco swagger just right."
From Curtis to Lennon
Having charted the rapid rise and early demise of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in Control, screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh is working on Nowhere Boy, based on Julia Baird's book, Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother, John Lennon.
The synopsis from the UK Film Council claims it sheds new light on Lennon's early years: "Raised by his aunt, John grows up unaware that his real mother lives just around the corner. They are re-united and she introduces him to the world of rock'n'roll. A painful struggle erupts between the two women, and tragedy strikes, propelling John into The Beatles, full of love, longing and pain."
Classics on the big screen
Dates for your diary: Two gilt-edged classics will be screened as they ought to be seen, on the cinema screen and in glorious 70mm, at the IFI in Dublin next month. Concluding its David Lean centenary season, the IFI presents the restored version of his marvellous 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm on August 16th and 17th. On August 30th, there's a 70mm presentation of Vertigo (1958), inarguably Alfred Hitchcock's greatest movie. www.irishfilm.ie
Movies and music at the NCH
Five weeks after they rocked the National Concert Hall with a memorable evening of John Barry themes, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra are back on that stage tonight for a programme of themes composed by Shaun Davey for cinema (The Tailor of Panama, Waking Ned) and television (Ballykissangel, The Hanging Gale).
At the NCH on August 29th and 30th, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will perform movie music illustrated with clips, including a song-and-dance number from Singin' in the Rain, the ballet sequence from An American in Paris, and scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey accompanied by its stirring score. www.nch.ie
