The ‘Bright Young Things’ Cinematic Universe

In the novels of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, the same characters crop up over and over again – whether it’s Bridey (the priggish elder brother from Brideshead Revisited) falling for Adam Symes’ faux fashion hacks in Vile Bodies or Linda Radlett being a minor character in Polly Hampton’s book, the British scene of the 1920s encourages the kind of crossover thinking that – I think – would make an ideal cinematic universe, with very little effort on the part of studio chiefs to get a high-quality, glamorous, and exciting series of films with – like comic books – no apparent end.

Much of the reason for the interconnected nature of the literature of this time is that the characters are based on real people, the friends and acquaintances of the authors who made up the fashionable set of the inter-war era. Their antics and personalities were transposed directly into fiction or satirised by a number of people. Reading books like ‘The Unfinished Palazzo’ or ‘The Mitford Girls’ is an amazing experience, full of anecdotes and relationships that you would fully not believe were they not provably true. To my mind, this is the ideal cauldron for a series of films: make a ‘Diana Mitford’ movie out of The Pursuit of Love and you can draw upon the work of Betjeman, Powell, and Waugh for sequels; make the ‘Stephen Tennant’ movie based on Waugh’s character Miles Malpractice and the sequel can draw on Mitford’s Cedric Hampton. Not only is there a great amount of material for each character, they pop up in one another’s stories constantly, as the real-life inspirations ran in a ‘set’, meaning that, in the truest sense, in order to successfully adapt any novels or biographies of the Bright Young Things era, there would need to be multiple interconnected stories.

In an age of ‘cinematic universes’ led by Marvel Comics and seized upon by fandom, a bloc of hyper-online people that love a crossover, popularity of an intellectual property is pushed by arty, literary types who – if not the dominant consumers – create illustrations and fanfics for their own edification that are disseminated everywhere. This culture is led by aesthetics – the hyper-muscular proportions of superheroes are ideal for anime style excess, and the lack of clothes makes them not merely sexually appealing but superhuman erganomes, ideal for practise and self-improvement. The aesthetic of the ‘Bright Young Things’ is entirely opposite, yet remains ideal for online illustrators to hone their skills: gaunt from cocaine use and wearing extravagant fashions made of fantastical materials, any illustrator could hit upon the well seam of Cecil Beaton photographs and draw their favourite actors into the scenes, as the internet is wont to do. The fic creators could write descriptions of the decadent parties and dangerous stunts that were characteristic of the BYT just as well as they could write romance or action scenes starring Marvel or Sherlock characters. We can see that, not only would becoming a cinematic universe suit the Bright Young Things stories, it would also suit the fans and consumers of media – not simply the fans of 20th century British literature.

On This Topic:

• RIP the Universal Horror Cinematic Universe, it was a perfect idea ruined by the worst execution possible. Let us all mourn as we remember what might have been by watching the films that could have been rebooted.
• Stephen Fry’s film of Vile Bodies is good fun and well cast – it might have been the start of a cinematic universe
• Why not check out The Supersizers, possibly the BBC’s most underrated show ever, for some context?

To-Do:

• Return library books
• Take out recycling
• Give up chocolate again. Get back on the diet wagon.

Today’s Culture:

• I’m trying to read Dune – it’s really not my vibe, but it is considered seminal, and I have a truly gorgeous edition of it to encourage me to push through
• The Girl With The Dogs is the only youtube channel where I don’t hate somebody talking over the cute animals (I had to unsubscribe from Save A Fox because they were so irritating)
• I hate running but I love pop music, so I am contemplating doing the Race For Life For Sarah