Solo Cinema

On this wet October Sunday afternoon I decided to go to the cinema by myself. It is not the first time I have done it and it won't be the last. There is a sense of determined independence about it.

I went to see Brideshead Revisited. The book, written by Evelyn Waugh, was serialised on television over 11 weeks back in 1981. I did not see that adaptation and have never read anything by Evelyn Waugh so though I would fill in this gap in my literary education by seeing the film version of the book.

I have read and heard so much about this landmark in TV history back in 1981 I was not expecting to be disappointed. The storey centres on Charles Ryder, a poor but educated Paddington painter who is drawn into the aristocratic world of the Marchmain family and their particularly severe brand of Catholicism. It is a story of passion, scandal and tragedy set in London in the 1880's that doesn't quite get off the ground. Unlike The Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy which kept me on the edge of my seat when that was televised, this storey was pale by comparison.

There are two issues here for me, one being I know the storey of Brideshead Revisited and won't be rushing to read much more of Evelyn Waugh and secondly, and more importantly, I am gaining in strength and independence and not as afraid of life on my own as I used to be. That counts for a lot for this little girl from Tredegar who has never lived on her own before now.