The White Countess (2005)

 It may have the look and name of Merchant/Ivory but it's like no M/I film I've seen
I love M/I films as a rule, with their beautiful cinematography combined with great scripts, actors AND (very important) stories. I could barely get through this one. As another reviewer said, I only kept watching it because I was hoping it would get better and because instead of renting it first I had took a chance (based partly on my history with M/I and partly on reviews here) and bought it (although thankfully didn't pay too much). It had nothing redeeming at all for me. Ralph Fiennes was ridiculous. I guess he was so busy focusing on looking blind (btw, did he have to mention a zillion times that he was blind?) that he couldn't focus on opening his mouth and talking. He mumbled through the whole film except for the totally out of character scene where he goes berserk. With names like both the Redgrave sisters and Vanessa's daughter Natasha, and yes, Ralph Fiennes, I expected a whole lot more. I thought to myself, well, I wasn't crazy about The Remains of the Day at first but then after repeated viewings it grew on me until now it is one of my favorite. Maybe it will happen with this one. Not a chance, for two reasons: (1) With Remains there are just so many layers to it that you can't possibly get them all in one setting (at least I didn't). The White Countess is what you see is what you get, which for me was absolutely nothing, and (2) I'm not going to watch it again. To sum it all up, very disappointing. May 12, 2008

 Shanghai Dryad?
Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson star in a Merchant/Ivory film of an Ishiguro novel with an exotic setting, an intriguing love story, lots of pathos, historic backdrop and a bang-up supporting cast including both Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave. How could you miss?

Well, they DID miss. I actually give COUNTESS 2.5 stars, not 3 and here's why.

First the "Shanghai International Settlement Pre-WWII" has been done to death (Empire of the Sun, Painted Veil, Shanghai Triad, even Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). Next, Ralph Fiennes is miscast and overacts (he's the most inept blind man I ever met) in an over-scripted role (he explains his dodge-reality-dream-bar over and over and bludgeons viewers with sight-related metaphors).

None of the characters is sympathetic except Richardson in the title role, a Russian Contessa reduced to dime-a-dance-girl to support her hideous kin in 1936 Shanghai.

The film is neither subtle nor believable. It is predictable. It is also a bizarre mixture of accuracy and bunk. Pains are taken to show Russians blessing themselves (crossing themselves) in the correct orthodox manner and to have accurate Chinese characters on banners and signs. Yet the sets look contrived and cramped and the characters speak Beijing mandarin NOT Shanghai-ese.

That's kind of the film in general. Small, interesting good points but a lot of annoying flaws.

Watch "The Painted Veil" instead. It's deeper, better acted, and more consistent.
March 14, 2008

 On His Blindness
The final Merchant Ivory production "The White Countess" is set in Shanghai in the 1930's. The brilliant Kazuo Ishiguro (REMAINS OF THE DAY, NEVER LET ME GO, etc.,) wrote the screen play. Ralph Finnes (Jackson) and Nathasha Richardson (Countess Sofia Belinskya) head up a cast that includes the rest of Richardson's natural family as her film family, her aunt Lynn Redgrave (her mother-in-law Olga Belinskya) and her mother Vanessa who is Princess Vera Belinskya. Hiroyuki Sanada is Matsuda, the crafty Japanese who convinces Jackson to liven up his nightclub The White Countess with more daring elements of society. Sofia and her family are Russian royalty displaced by the revolution of 1917 in Russia. She is the principal breadwinner for her family, having become a tax dancer in Shanghai, Her family reeks of hypocrisy as they are content to take the money she receives for her work while placing themselves above her because of it. (Their hypocrisy becomes even more disgusting near the end of the film.)

Finnes and Richardson both give stellar performances as the owner and employee of The White Countess. Richardson has never been more beautiful and proves once again that acting ability in this family is generational. Finnes is a former U. S. diplomat who has been blinded by a tragic event. His natural blindness is a metaphor for his other blindess since he is oblivious both to the changing dangerous political landscape in Shanghai and the love of Sofia. Some critics find the ending of this really fine film melodramatic. I would describe it rather as heart-wrenching.

Merchant Ivory films are always stunning visually. "The White Countess" is no exception, particularly the street scenes and the ending with the boats leaving the harbour while the skies light up with explosions.

"The White Countess" is certainly a classy film. It is sad that there will be no more Merchant Ivory productions. January 28, 2008

 Good For Countless Reasons
When Ismail Merchant died in '05, it ended a partnership spanning 40 years, responsible for creating 28 films, many of which are masterpieces. There's a bonus feature that comes with this film chronicling the energy and resourcefulness that enabled Merchant to produce films far outside the Hollywood puppy mill. One friend says, "For Ismail, every hour had 70 minutes and every dollar had 110 cents." The partnership of producer Merchant and director James Ivory created a franchise - "Merchant Ivory" - a phrase with oddly appropriate British Empire undertones - was synonymous with opulent period pieces featuring meticulous attention to detail, unapologetically intelligent scripts and source material, and complex characters struggling through dense emotional landscapes. Merchant Ivory films delight the eye and always look up at their audiences.

The White Countess is no exception, if anything it stands along side their very best work. Consider the cast, Natasha Richardson, Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa & Lynn Redgrave. The setting is Shanghai in 1936; every image draws you deep into the heart of it, the trolleys, the clothes, the nightclubs, the street scenes crowded with rickshaws, the bustling harbor. Then move to the story itself where themes of lost grandeur and reduced circumstance glide past fragile dreams of creating a personal peace with an increasingly chaotic and hostile world like couples dancing to lush jazz music in a smoky nightclub. The Belinskya family, Russian nobility, has lost their privileged life to the force of history; exiled, they live in squalor and subsist on money that in-law, Countess Sofia, Richardson, earns through taxi dancing and worse. All that remains of their grandeur is the cruel elitism and ingratitude they aim at Sofia and her daughter.

Todd Jackson, Fiennes, has endured a very different loss, professional and personal. An American diplomat who was once considered, "The last hope of the League of Nations," he has fallen into deep disillusion with the ability of diplomacy to quell the barbarous tendencies of nation states, and has lost his sight in a truly catastrophic event with political origins. He now seeks a "smaller canvas," specifically, a nightclub which will serve as a microcosm for the perfect world he imagines, a world of sophistication, culture, excellence, and importantly, socio-political diversity. A chance encounter with Sofia gives him both the centerpiece of his nightclub, and its name, The White Countess. These two form a very fragile, distant bond, they are both so hurt, so damaged, that perhaps this is all they can ever achieve. Jackson, in particular, believes this.

There is a degree of implausibility at the heart of The White Countess that you will always forgive simply because the performances by Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes are so astoundingly good. Watching this movie is a bit like watching the last Vermeer being painted. In a sense it is perhaps no better than all the other Vermeers, but knowing that this is the last film made by Merchant Ivory certainly does make it more poignant. (There were two more in pre-production.) Do not leave before the final frames; they will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. January 20, 2008

 Charming tale set in hard times
Set in Shanghai, this movie follows the life of a White Russian countess, a refugee from the Russian Civil War made stateless by the Reds and forced to support what's left of her family as a taxi dancer. She meets an American with an odd dream of opening his "dream bar" with her as the centerpiece.

The costumes and scenary are awesome in this film and the acting is very good as well. However, for me the movie never really "clicked" from good to exceptional. I enjoyed it but not enough to watch it time after time.

The best romance I've seen done in a long time, though. December 14, 2007

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