The White Countess (2005)
Country: GB/GER/US/CHI
Technical: col 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A White Russian countess obliged to work as a dance hall hostess to feed her extended family in 1930s Shanghai is, thanks to an act of kindness, noticed by a blind American former diplomat who hires her as the centrepiece of his all-time dream jazz nightclub.
Review:
Ismail Merchant's last film is an affecting, nicely acted and typically handsome production whose central conceit is of lives lived in exile from the outside world, and to some extent from reality. It is the bitterly practical concerns of the Richardson character that force the reclusive, battle-scarred American out of his shell. A tad overstretched, perhaps, with a little too much local colour, but the close, reminiscent of an Angelopoulos film, is worth waiting for.
Country: GB/GER/US/CHI
Technical: col 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A White Russian countess obliged to work as a dance hall hostess to feed her extended family in 1930s Shanghai is, thanks to an act of kindness, noticed by a blind American former diplomat who hires her as the centrepiece of his all-time dream jazz nightclub.
Review:
Ismail Merchant's last film is an affecting, nicely acted and typically handsome production whose central conceit is of lives lived in exile from the outside world, and to some extent from reality. It is the bitterly practical concerns of the Richardson character that force the reclusive, battle-scarred American out of his shell. A tad overstretched, perhaps, with a little too much local colour, but the close, reminiscent of an Angelopoulos film, is worth waiting for.
Country: GB/GER/US/CHI
Technical: col 135m
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A White Russian countess obliged to work as a dance hall hostess to feed her extended family in 1930s Shanghai is, thanks to an act of kindness, noticed by a blind American former diplomat who hires her as the centrepiece of his all-time dream jazz nightclub.
Review:
Ismail Merchant's last film is an affecting, nicely acted and typically handsome production whose central conceit is of lives lived in exile from the outside world, and to some extent from reality. It is the bitterly practical concerns of the Richardson character that force the reclusive, battle-scarred American out of his shell. A tad overstretched, perhaps, with a little too much local colour, but the close, reminiscent of an Angelopoulos film, is worth waiting for.