Whatever happened to fair dealing?
And pure ethics?
And nice manners?
Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass?
Whatever happened to class?
Many have sung that song, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah did it quite remarkably, though. The lyrics belong to the musical Chicago, but they're for me a piece of never-dying poetry which seems to fill itself with truth as days die and new ones are born. Class, class, whatever happened to class? Is it gone or transfigured or reinterpreted? I try to find it and I fancy my acting with it, living by it.
My eternal hunt for class has always brought my way distinct things that, combined, have given me a less blurry, more concise idea of what class is. Who would have thought that despite The Importance of Being Earnest, Tender is the night, The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Great Gatsby among others, it would be the televisation —indeed, I coined the word— of the swell novel Brideshead Revisited I would find the pure essence of class in.
As it happened with Out of Africa, I borrowed the DVD's from a friend —as a matter of fact the same one, classy and stylish in a delicious dose. (And I would like to dedicate this post to her) Wonders were told to me from those who had been ignorant witnesses of the precious virtue and I could obviously be no less. That is why as soon as I found myself in the softness of a spoiled Sunday evening I started and never stopped playing the 11 episodes. Charles Ryder, geniously played by Jeremy Irons, meets Sebastian Flyte, a young attractive aristocrat at Oxford with whom he instantly becomes instantly friends and by who he is entirely fascinated. Sebastian takes Charles to his palatial home, Brideshead Castle, where Ryder meets one by one all the members of the family, rapidly getting into the social craziness of a tempting yet complex alcohol, religion and troubled family relations cocktail.Sebastian Flyte, played by Anthony Andrews, is the vivid essence of class. So are his sisters and mother and father. A dismantled family which perfectly knows how to behave in each situation, being examples of good manners, taste and elegance which ultimately translates in class.
If you have not had the fortune to see it, move fast and find a solution to it. To class-seekers out there, any thoughts?
[Picture credit: MovieZoo.dk]
I'm off.
PS. Brideshead Revisited, in the shape of a film, will be coming out by the end of the year. Read about it here.
