The White Countess

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Movie
Original title The White Countess
Country of production United Kingdom
United States
People's Republic of China
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director James Ivory
script Kazuo Ishiguro
production Ismail Merchant Assistant Producer: Kai Wong
music Richard Robbins
camera Christopher Doyle
occupation

The White Countess is a British-American-Chinese drama film directed by James Ivory based on a script by Kazuo Ishiguro . The film tells the story of a blind US diplomat who falls in love with a Russian émigré in Shanghai .

content

The film takes place in the international district of Shanghai between 1936 and the conquest of the surrounding area of ​​the demilitarized zone by Japanese troops in November 1937.

The American Todd Jackson, who was a member of the US delegation involved in the peace negotiations of the League of Nations , lives in the international district of Shanghai. His wife and two children were killed during the uprisings in China , and he himself went blind in an attack. On his forays into the bars, he met the opaque Japanese Mr. Matsuda and the Russian émigré Countess Sofia Belinskaya.

Sofia earns her living as a dancer in a so-called Taxi Dance Hall , in which male bar guests can dance for a ticket with the taxi dancers , who share in the profits from the bar operator. Sometimes they have to "fall in love", as Sofia says, in order to be able to support their family at all, because the family lives only on their earnings under poor conditions. Sofia is despised by the class-conscious mother-in-law and the bigoted sister-in-law, who also tries to take away her daughter Katya, because of their work. She only experiences affection and respect from her aunt, Princess Belinskaya and her husband. The family lives in the same household as the Jewish tailor Samuel Feinstein and his children, who lost his wife and father while fleeing Europe.

Todd Jackson, front man and figurehead of an international society, is disillusioned with politics and society. He dreams of a perfect bar as an enclave of peace and beauty in a chaotic world full of intrigue and violence, with its bullies, warmongers and war profiteers. Matsuda-san shares his preferences. The two men become friends. By winning a horse bet, in which he has wagered all his fortune, he sets up an elegant and exclusive nightclub: "The White Countess". He hires Sofia as his centerpiece , as the "heart" of his bar. Although the two feel more and more attracted to each other, their relationship to one another remains distant and is limited to business dealings in the bar.

When Japanese troops enter the city, chaos breaks out and people try to flee. The Belinski family are on the run to Hong Kong, UK, with passports paid for with the money Jackson gave Sofia. They also take Sofia's child with them. They did not get a passport for Sofia, who they finally want to get rid of, as Sofia allegedly discredited the family with their relationship with Jackson and his Japanese friend Matsuda and could endanger a life in British territory. At the last minute, Jackson and Sofia manage to snatch the child from the Belinski family and, with the help of Feinstein , save themselves on a junk going to Macau.

production

The film was shot in Shanghai under difficult conditions. The Chinese government demanded that as many activities as possible be carried out by Chinese during the shooting. The technical equipment z. B. for explosions could not be imported and had to be replaced by material from Chinese fireworks. The film studios in Shanghai with their existing backdrops were used for the film, as recordings in the old town of Shanghai were hardly possible due to the changes in the city due to new buildings and skyscrapers.

Three members of the Redgrave family were involved in the film, in addition to Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson and Lynn Redgrave. The White Countess was the last of almost 50 films that Ismail Merchant has made with James Ivory since 1961. Merchant died on May 25, 2005, shortly after filming was finished.

A DVD version of the film was produced by Sony Pictures in 2005 .

criticism

Roger Ebert dedicates a detailed tribute to the last film of the Merchant / Ivory team. Like Todd Jackson in the film, they have set up "their own perfect bar" outside Hollywood since 1963, with tragic and elegant cosmopolitan characters, stalking the pages of good books; what many of them have in common is a personal style that is used to cover up wounds, lust and disappointment. Merchant and Ivory would never have bothered with conventional melodramas , sensation and cheap thrill . With their screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , they would have adapted works by authors such as Henry James , EM Forster and Kazuo Ishiguro. “You worked for a well-read minority. And if you have read this far, they have worked for you ( They have catered for a literate minority. If you have read this far, they have catered for you ) ”.

“Sometimes they made great films, some were weak, even bad, but never shabby or undignified. Here is someone who is good to very good, moving, patient, moving. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The White Countess. DVD 2005, bonus material.
  2. ↑ Roger Ebert Review: The White Countess, 2005 , accessed August 29, 2016.