Time travelling (at the movies)

I'm a period drama junkie. Stately manors, forbidding castles, sprawling gardens complete with a labyrinth, fields of wildflowers, vintage clothing - they all set my heart fluttering.

Which was way I couldn't peel my eyes off the screen during the 2+hr Brideshead Revisited especially when the director utilizes the slow-mo and panning shots to a max (thank god for lighting and camera trickery). You see the characters close up, words unspoken, brimming with emotion. You see the reflection of Venetian waters dancing off the walls at night.

I admire the director's eye for detail in recreating a 1920 English uppity society. I marvel at the effort it must have taken to put every guy into shirts, vests, blazers, ties and scarves (no tweeds allowed for dinner at Brideshead).

Other than the trite issues of love and social status, themes of homosexuality and religion add a certain tenseness to the plot, another reason why I didn't doze off halfway (also partly cos I kept imagining Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney instead of a snooty matriarch). I've just discovered that the author with his rather misleading name - Evelyn Waught - is actually a male.