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TV: "The Line of Beauty" (2006)
The Line of Beauty is a Booker prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst that charts several years in the life of Nick Guest, a young gay man in the UK who is drawn into the world of the 1980s upper class Conservative Party. The title is taken from an art theory term for an S-shaped curve, which mirrors the narrative trajectory: at first Nick's star rises, before peaking and falling. In 2006 the novel was adapted into a three part series by the BBC, and while I loved the book I'm going to focus on the TV series. [Spoilers beneath cut]
The Line of Beauty tells two entwined stories. The first story arc centers on Nick's romances and coming of age. While Nick is out from the start, his first relationship occurs at the beginning of the story, when he and a partner have sex in a shared private garden in one of London's most expensive squares. Later, Nick develops a long-term affair with Wani, a rich, closeted man in his elite circle. Throughout we see the tensions between Nick's identity, relationships, and the conservative social and political world that he inhabits, which is full of casual classism, homophobia, and racism. Moreover, the impact of the AIDs crisis becomes more visible as some of Nicks friends and lovers become ill.
The second story arc is the political rise and fall of Gerald Fedden. The connection between the Feddens and Nick begins because Nick is a close friend of Gerald's son, but Nick befriends Gerald's daughter Cat and moves into their London house as a long-term guest-cum-lodger. At first Fedden is an ambitious Tory MP, but we see him become a Minister, friend of Margaret Thatcher, target of the media, and his eventual resignation mid-scandal. As Gerald's political and family life falls apart, the Feddens turn savagely on Nick.
What I love about both the book and film is the vivid portrayal of the British establishment in the 1980s, with both the seductive glamor of beautiful art and architecture, and the vicious elitism, prejudice, and double-standards. The BBC adaptation makes those themes very explicit, and gains strength from being able to show them visually, for instance by explaining the line of beauty with a shot of a curving picture frame, instead of reading a description. It's not a happy story, but it is powerful and Nick emerges as a sympthetic but naive figure surrounded by people whose superficial charm hides much more unpleasant traits.
The Line of Beauty tells two entwined stories. The first story arc centers on Nick's romances and coming of age. While Nick is out from the start, his first relationship occurs at the beginning of the story, when he and a partner have sex in a shared private garden in one of London's most expensive squares. Later, Nick develops a long-term affair with Wani, a rich, closeted man in his elite circle. Throughout we see the tensions between Nick's identity, relationships, and the conservative social and political world that he inhabits, which is full of casual classism, homophobia, and racism. Moreover, the impact of the AIDs crisis becomes more visible as some of Nicks friends and lovers become ill.
The second story arc is the political rise and fall of Gerald Fedden. The connection between the Feddens and Nick begins because Nick is a close friend of Gerald's son, but Nick befriends Gerald's daughter Cat and moves into their London house as a long-term guest-cum-lodger. At first Fedden is an ambitious Tory MP, but we see him become a Minister, friend of Margaret Thatcher, target of the media, and his eventual resignation mid-scandal. As Gerald's political and family life falls apart, the Feddens turn savagely on Nick.
What I love about both the book and film is the vivid portrayal of the British establishment in the 1980s, with both the seductive glamor of beautiful art and architecture, and the vicious elitism, prejudice, and double-standards. The BBC adaptation makes those themes very explicit, and gains strength from being able to show them visually, for instance by explaining the line of beauty with a shot of a curving picture frame, instead of reading a description. It's not a happy story, but it is powerful and Nick emerges as a sympthetic but naive figure surrounded by people whose superficial charm hides much more unpleasant traits.