[gentle instrumental music]
♪ ♪
In the winter of 1924,
I returned to England.
Lady Marchmain had written to me in Paris
to tell me that Sebastian
would complete his Levantine tour with Mr. Samgrass
in time to spend Christmas with his family.
She invited me to Brideshead.
Christmas with my uncle, however,
was an engagement I could not break.
So it was two days later that I traveled across country
expecting to find Sebastian already established.
Thank you. Thank you.
And those two over there, if you would be so kind.
No, no, no, those two over there.
Charlesl.
Happy Christmas,
or should I say, happy New Year?
Happy New Year, Mr. Samgrass.
Sebastian, what are you doing on the train?
I thought you were going to be home for Christmas.
There was a delay.
It was the luggage.
Mr. Atkinson at Cooks
promised it would arrive by the 24th,
but unfortunately- Yes, um, thank you.
How was Egypt?
I'll tell you later.
Happy New Year, certainly.
[whistle blasts]
[slides clicking]
This one is when we reached the top of the pass.
We heard the galloping horses behind,
and two soldiers came to the head of the caravan
and turned us back.
There they are on the right.
They reached us only just in time.
There was a band not a mile ahead.
A band?
Goodnessl A jazz band?
Dear Lady Julia, no.
I suppose the sort of folk music
you get in those parts is very monotonous.
Dear Lady Marchmain, a band of brigands.
The mountains are full of them,
stragglers from Kemal's army,
Greeks who got cut off in the retreat.
Very desperate fellows, I assure you.
[whispering] Charles.
Do pinch me.
So you never got to wherever it was.
Weren't you terribly disappointed, Sebastian?
Me? Me?
Oh, I don't think I was there that day.
Was I, Sammy?
That was the day you were ill.
Yes, that was the day that I was ill,
so I shouldn't have got to wherever it was.
Should I, Sammy?
Sorry.
Now this, Lady Marchmain,
was our Turkish cook, Ali Torkut.
That's him on the left.
That's me at Damascus.
That's me with a rather tiresome Turkish youth.
This is a group taken near Jericho, I think.
No, Jerusalem.
All ruins and mules and you.
Where's Sebastian?
Ah.
He-he held the camera.
He became quite an expert as soon as he learned
not to put his hand over the lens,
didn't you, Sebastian?
This is us, taken by a street photographer in Beirut.
There's Sebastian.
Goodness, isn't that Anthony Blanche?
Yes, we saw quite a lot of him.
Met him by chance at Constantinople.
A delightful companion.
I can't think how I missed knowing him.
Here we are again at Krak des Chevaliers.
There's Anthony againl.
Yes, he came with us all the way to Beirut.
Well, that's it, I'm afraid.
Thank you, Mr. Samgrass.
It must have been a wonderful tour for you both.
May I have a word with you, Bridey?
But of course, Mother.
It must have been an extraordinary trip.
Yes.
[sighs]
Did you ride a camel?
Uh...
I don't know. Probably.
Will you tell me about Paris, Charles?
Well, it's not very exciting in comparison,
but it's going very well.
When are you going to come and stay, Sebastian?
You'll like it.
I suppose they all think you're wonderful over there.
Well, it's amazing,
but I don't seem to have put a foot wrong.
The teachers are very good.
I'm not sure about the students.
They never go near the Louvre.
Half of them are only interested
in making a popular splash like Picabia,
and the other half just want to do advertisements for Vogue
and decorate nightclubs.
Charles?
Modern art is all bosh, isn't it?
Great bosh, Cordelia.
Oh, I am glad.
Cordelia, why don't you run away
and leave us in peace?
Aren't you at all pleased to be home?
Yes, of course I'm pleased.
Well, you might show it.
I've been looking forward to it so much.
How extraordinary,
your running into Anthony Blanche.
Yes, wasn't it?
Dear old Antoine.
Quite like old times.
Excuse me, my lord.
I say, where's the cocktail tray?
Isn't it time they brought it in?
It's still a bit early.
Mr. Wilcox is upstairs with her ladyship, my lord.
Well, never mind. Bring it in yourself.
Mr. Wilcox has the keys, my lord.
Well, send him in the moment he comes down.
Very good, my lord.
Yes, extraordinary meeting Anthony like that.
He's very changed.
You wouldn't have recognized him.
He'd grown a great beard in lstanbul.
Where the hell is Wilcox?
Very unbecoming,
and I made him shave it off.
Well, I don't think I want a cocktail, anyway.
I'll go up and see Nanny,
and then I'll have my bath.
Ah, Charles. Can you give me a moment?
There's something I've got to explain.
Of course.
Mother's given orders
that no drinks are to be left in any of the rooms.
You'll understand why.
If you want anything, ring and ask Wilcox.
Only best wait until you're on your own.
I'm sorry, but there it is.
Is that really necessary?
I gather very necessary.
You may or may not have heard,
Sebastian had another outbreak when he got back to England.
He was lost over Christmas.
Mr. Samgrass only found him yesterday evening.
I guessed something of the sort must have happened.
Are you sure this is the best way of dealing with it?
It's my mother's way.
Oh, do have a drink yourself if you want
now that he's gone upstairs.
It would choke me.
Hello, Nanny. I was looking for Sebastian.
I thought he might be here.
I told him he was looking peaky.
All that foreign food,
I don't suppose it agreed with him.
He looked as though he's been having some late nights too
by the look of his eyes.
Dancing, I suppose.
And his shirt wanted darning.
I told him to bring it here to me
before it goes to the wash.
Thank you, Nanny.
Oh, it's you.
You gave me a fright.
So you got a drink.
I don't know what you mean.
Oh, come on, you don't have to pretend with me.
You might offer me one.
It's just a little something I had in my flask.
It's empty now.
What's going on?
Nothing.
A lot.
I'll tell you sometime.
Well, I'd better go and get changed.
It is certainly true, Lady Marchmain,
about the Levantine cuisine.
It can have the most alarming aspects
for the uninitiated.
When we were dining with the patriarch of Trebizond,
we were offered that most special delicacy:
The eye of the sheep in a bed of couscous.
How very disgusting.
Indeed, I was struggling to find my demotic Greek for,
"I like sheep's eye,
but sheep's eye doesn't like me."
You seem to have borne your hardships very well,
Mr. Samgrass.
Yes.
Who's hunting tomorrow?
I am.
I'm taking that horse of yours, Julia, if you don't mind.
Just to show him to the hounds.
Mm, that's all right.
I think Rex is arriving sometime tomorrow.
I suppose I'd better stay in and see him.
Sorry. Bit late.
I've promised an outing on Mr. Beelzebub tomorrow.
Really, Cordelia, what an unfortunate name for a pony.
You don't get the point, Mummy.
Sister Bridget said that if you can ride the devil,
you can ride anything.
Where is this meat? Is it here?
Yes, it is.
Well, if it's here, I'd like to hunt, please.
That's if there's something for me.
Of course. Be delighted.
I would have asked you, Sebastian,
but you always used to complain of being made to go out.
Well, tomorrow I'd like to.
It's perfectly simple then.
You can have Tinker Bell.
She's been going very nicely this season.
No, thank you.
I'll have whiskey, please.
I'm so glad you're going out tomorrow, Sebastian.
A day out will be so good for you.
Mr. Samgrass was telling me how you both stood up
to the hardships of your journey together.
I had no idea you had to endure such discomfort.
Has he?
I was explaining about the time
we were held at the Turkish border
and had to share the guards' supper.
Don't you remember?
Oh, yes, of course,
the guards' supper.
Are you going to chapel tonight, Mummy?
No, no. I don't think so.
I think an early night will do us all good.
Someone remind me to write out a note for the stables.
I think Tinker Bell will suit you very well, Sebastian.
You won't let me down tomorrow, promise?
You will try and look smart?
Of course.
I rather wish I was coming out with you tomorrow.
You wouldn't see much sport.
I can tell you exactly what I'm going to do.
I shall leave Bridey at the first cover,
hack across to the nearest pub,
and spend the entire day
quietly soaking in the bar parlor.
They treat me like a dipsomaniac.
They can bloody well have a dipsomaniac.
I hate hunting, anyway.
Well, I can't stop you.
You can, as a matter of fact.
By not giving me any money.
They stopped my banking account, you know, in the summer.
It's been one of my chief difficulties.
I pawned my watch and cigarette case
to ensure a happy Christmas.
So I shall have to come to you tomorrow
for my day's expenses.
I won't.
You know perfectly well I can't.
Won't you, Charles?
Oh, well, I daresay I'll manage on my own somehow.
I got pretty clever at that recently,
managing on my own.
I've had to.
Sebastian, what have you and Mr. Samgrass been up to?
He told you at dinner.
Ruins and guides...
and mules,
that's what Sammy's been up to.
And you?
I suppose I may as well tell you,
since he unfortunately seems to have been very indiscreet
about my happy Christmas.
I gave Sammy the slip.
I had begun to guess.
I got lucky at cards in Constantinople,
and I was just enjoying a very happy hour in a bar
when who should walk in but Anthony Blanche
with a beard and a very pretty little Jew boy.
Anthony lent me a tenner
to help me escape...
just before Sammy came panting in to recapture me.
After that he wouldn't let me out of his sight.
But in Athens, it was easy.
We stayed in the legation.
One day after lunch, I simply walked out,
cashed the money at Cooks,
found a sailor who spoke American,
lay up with him until his ship sailed,
and popped back to Constantinople.
That was that.
And didn't Sammy mind?
He was a bit anxious at first.
I didn't want him to get
the entire Mediterranean Fleet out,
so I cabled him saying, "I'm quite well.
"Please send half the money to the Ottoman Bank
and keep the rest for yourself."
- Poor old Sammy. - Poor old Sammy.
I almost feel sorry for him.
In the end I think he quite enjoyed himself
in his own ghastly little way.
So here I am.
After Christmas.
Yes.
I was determined to have a happy Christmas.
Did you?
I think so.
Don't remember much about it.
That's always a good sign, isn't it?
[trumpet blaring]
Sebastian?
You can't go dressed like that.
Do go and change.
You look so lovely in your hunting clothes.
They're all locked away somewhere.
Gibbs couldn't find them.
That's a fib.
I helped get them out myself before you were called.
You promised me.
There are all sorts of bits missing.
Well, it just encourages the Strickland-Venables.
They've been behaving rottenly.
They've even taken their grooms out of top hats.
You see.
They won't even trust me that far.
It's they who are mad, not me.
Good morning.
Now you can't refuse me money.
More.
Sebastianl.
Lunch.
Good morning, Sebastian.
So Sebastian is in pursuit of the fox,
and our little problem is shelved for an hour or two.
[trumpet blasts]
I heard all about your grand tour last night.
Ah, I rather supposed you might have.
I did not harrow our hostess with all that.
After all, it turned out
far better than anyone had any right to expect.
I did feel, however,
that some explanation was due to her
for Sebastian's Christmas festivities.
You may have observed last night
that there were certain precautions.
I did.
You thought them excessive?
I am with you.
Particularly as they tend to compromise the comfort
of our own little visit.
I have seen Lady Marchmain this morning.
You must not suppose I am just out of bed.
I have had a little talk upstairs with our hostess.
I think we may hope for some relaxation tonight.
Yesterday was not an evening
that any of us would wish to have repeated.
I'm not sure that tonight
is quite the time to start the relaxation.
Sebastian can come to no mischief today.
For one thing, he has no money. I happen to know.
I saw to it.
I even have his watch and cigarette case upstairs.
He will be quite harmless.
As long as no one is so wicked as to give him any.
[trumpet blaring]
Don't you get bored with the subject?
Why must everyone make such a thing about it?
Because we're fond of him.
Well, I'm fond of him too, in a way, I suppose.
Only I wish he'd behave like anyone else.
I grew up with one family skeleton, you know, Papa.
Not to be talked of in front of the servants,
not to be talked of in front of us
when we were children.
If Mummy is going to start
making a skeleton out of Sebastian,
it's too much.
If he wants to be always tight,
why doesn't he go off to Kenya or somewhere,
where it doesn't matter?
Why does it matter less being unhappy in Kenya
than anywhere else?
Don't pretend to be stupid, Charles.
You understand perfectly.
You mean there won't be
so many embarrassing situations for you?
[man yelling]
When do you go to Paris, Charles?
In about a month.
I think I'm beginning to miss it.
Now I've got a new studio on the lle Saint-Louis.
It's up about six flights of stairs,
but there's a wonderful view.
The light's quite different in Paris.
I love that part,
the river and Notre Dame.
You must be happy there.
I'm hoping Sebastian will come and stay with me
when I go back.
That would have been lovely, Charles.
I hope he will be coming to stay with me in London.
You know that's impossible.
London is the worst place.
Even Mr. Samgrass couldn't find him there.
We have no secrets in this house.
He was lost, you know, all through Christmas.
Mr. Samgrass only found him
because he couldn't pay the bill where he was,
so they had to telephone our house.
It's too horrible.
No, London is impossible.
If he can't behave himself here with us,
we shall have to keep him
healthy and happy here for a while
and then send him abroad again with Mr. Samgrass.
You see, I've been through all this before.
I hope he's having a good day.
The retort was there,
unspoken, well understood by both of us:
"You couldn't keep your husband. He ran away.
So will Sebastian, because they both hate you."
Thus, with Julia and Lady Marchmain,
I reached deadlock,
not because we failed to understand one another
but because we understood too well.
The subject was everywhere in the house,
like a fire deep in the hold of a ship.
I do think-as reference.
Yes.
Mummy, do look at Rex's Christmas present.
Hello, Rex.
- Mr. Mottram. - Hello, Samgrass.
Dear me.
I wonder if it eats the same kinds of things
as an ordinary tortoise.
What will you do when it's dead?
Can you have another tortoise fitted into the shell?
This slightly obscene object
became a memorable part of the evening,
one of those needle-hooks of experience
which catch the attention when larger matters are at stake
and remain in the mind when they are forgotten,
so that years later it is a bit of gilding
or a certain smell or the tone of a clock ticking
which recall one to a tragedy.
I hope it's dipsomania.
That's simply a great misfortune we must all help him bear.
What I used to fear was that
he just got drunk deliberately
when he liked and because he liked.
But that's exactly what he did.
That's what we both did.
That's what he does with me now.
I can keep him to that
if only your mother would trust me.
If you worry him with keepers and cures,
he'll be a physical wreck in a few years.
There's nothing wrong
in being a physical wreck, you know?
There's no moral obligation
to become a Master of Foxhounds or postmaster general
or to live to walk ten miles at 80.
"Wrong," "moral obligation,"
now you're back on religion.
I never left it.
Do you know, Bridey,
if ever I thought about becoming a Catholic,
I'd only have to talk to you for five minutes
to be cured.
You manage to reduce
what seem quite sensible propositions
to stark nonsense.
It's odd you should say that.
I've heard it before from other people.
It's one of the reasons why I don't think
I should have made a good priest.
It's something in the way my mind works, I suppose.
Send him to Borethus in Zurich.
Borethus is the man.
He performs miracles every day at that sanatorium of his.
You know how Charlie Kilcartney used to drink.
No.
No, I'm afraid I don't know how Charlie Kilcartney drank.
Two wives despaired of him.
When he got engaged to Sylvia,
she made it a condition that he go to Zurich
and take the cure, and it worked.
He came back three months later a different man,
and he hasn't touched a drop since,
even though Sylvia walked out on him.
Why did she do that?
Well...
Charlie got to be a bit of a bore
when he stopped drinking.
But that's not the point of the story.
No, I suppose, really,
it's meant to be an encouraging story.
He takes sex cases too, you know?
Oh, dear, what very peculiar friends
poor Sebastian will make in Zurich.
He's booked up for months ahead,
but I think he might find room if I asked him.
I could telephone him from here tonight.
I'll think about it.
Fine.
Hellol.
Hello, Rex.
Hi, Cordelia.
Oh, Julia, what's that?
How beastly.
It's my Christmas present from Rex.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm always putting my foot in it.
But how cruel. It must hurt frightfully.
They can't feel.
How do you know?
I bet they can.
I've already had one tea at Mrs. Barney's,
but I'm still hungry.
It was a spiffing day.
You should have seen Jean Strickland-Venables
when she fell off in the mud.
Where's Sebastian?
He's in disgrace.
Coming out in that beastly rat-catcher's coat
and that mean little tie
like something from Captain Morvin's Riding Academy.
I just didn't recognize him in the meet,
and I hope nobody else did.
Why? Isn't he back yet?
I expect he got lost.
Poor little thing, that horrid tortoise.
What are we going to do about it?
I will deal with it. Yes, I will.
Lady?
Thank you.
Did I hear Lord Sebastian come back, Wilcox?
Yes, my lady. He's just arrived.
He rang up from South Twining to be collected.
He must have stopped for tea with someone.
South Twining? Who lives there?
He spoke from the hotel, my lady.
South Twining?
Goodness, he did get lost.
Thank you, Wilcox.
Dear boy, how nice to see you looking so well again.
Your day in the open has done you good.
Drinks are on the table. Do help yourself.
Thank you. I will.
There was nothing unusual in her speech
but the fact of her saying it.
Six months ago, it would not have been said.
That horse of yours, Bridey...
it's no damned use.
Couldn't get it over a molehill.
How did you expect me to keep up with the rest of the field
even if I wanted to?
Don't sit too long, Bridey.
Shall I serve the port, my lord?
Yes, thank you.
Charles, you saw it.
[chuckles] You saw how pathetic it was.
You saw it.
A blow, expected, repeated,
falling on a bruise
with no smart or shock of surprise,
only a dull and sickening pain
and the doubt whether another like it could be borne.
That was how it felt sitting opposite Sebastian
at dinner that night.
You'd best go to bed, Sebastian.
Some port first.
Have some port if you want it,
but don't come into the drawing room.
Too bloody drunk!
Like olden times.
Gentlemen were always too drunk to join ladies in olden times.
"April 26th.
"Got some more red enamel paint-
"red, to my mind, being the best color-
"and painted the coal scuttle
"and the backs of our Shakespeare,
the binding of which had almost worn out."
Sebastian's gone to bed.
I think we should go too.
Cordelia? Julia?
Oh, not just yet, Mummy.
I'm staying up for a little.
Come up and see me before you go to bed.
I shan't be asleep.
Good night, Rex.
Good night, Lady Marchmain.
- Good night, Mother. - Good night.
Ah, Lady Marchmain, thank you for reading so delightfully.
Good night, Mr. Samgrass.
Good night, Charles.
Good night, Lady Marchmain.
- Good night, Charles. - Good night, Cordelia.
Mr. Samgrass, are you coming?
Oh, yes, indeed. I'm more than ready.
Good night.
- Good night. - Good night.
You're packed, Charles.
What's happening?
I'm going.
Tell me honestly,
you don't want me to stay, do you?
No, Charles. I don't believe I do.
I'm no help, am I?
No help.
I'd better go and say good-bye to your mother.
The problem is,
I've got a tremendous amount of work to get done
before I go back to Paris.
I'm sorry I'm not able to stay as long as I'd hoped,
and I hope you'll forgive me rushing off like this.
Well, then it's good-bye, Charles.
Good-bye, Lady Marchmain,
and thank you very much for having me to stay.
Charles,
there's something I must ask you.
Did you give Sebastian money yesterday?
Yes.
Knowing how he was likely to spend it?
Yes.
I don't understand it.
I simply don't understand
how anyone could do something so callously wicked.
I'm not going to reproach you.
God knows it's not for me to reproach anyone.
Any failure in my children is my failure.
But I don't understand it.
I don't understand how you could have been so nice
in so many ways
and then do something so wantonly cruel.
I don't understand how we all liked you so much.
Did you hate us all the time?
I don't understand how we deserved it.
Good-bye.
I remained unmoved.
There was no part of me
remotely touched by her distress.
It was as I had often imagined being expelled from school.
I almost expected to hear her say,
"I have already written to inform your unhappy father."
But, as I drove away,
I felt that I was leaving part of myself behind,
and that wherever I went afterwards,
I should feel the lack of it
and search for it hopelessly,
as ghosts are said to do.
"I shall never go back," I said to myself.
A door had shut,
the low door in the wall
I had sought and found at Oxford.
Open it now, and I should find no enchanted garden.
I had come to the surface
into the light of common day after a long captivity
in the sunless coral palaces and waving forests
of the ocean bed.
"I have left behind illusion," I said to myself.
"Henceforth, I live in a world of three dimensions
with the aid of my five senses."
I have since learned that there is no such world.
But then, as the car turned out of sight of the house,
I thought it took no finding
but lay all about me at the end of the avenue.