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Love is blind in Shanghai
THE WHITE COUNTESS
Directed by James Ivory
Certificate 15
RALPH Fiennes and Natasha Richardson (pictured) co-star in
the last film produced by Ismail Merchant – an old-fashioned,
good-looking romantic drama which centres on a blind American
former diplomat and the Russian aristocrat he befriends in China
before World War II.
Scripted by Kazuo Ishiguro, the tale wends its way without hurry
and delivers, however slowly, an emotional payoff.
Beginning in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, we find elegant countess
Sofia Belinsky (Richardson) working as a professional dance
partner to support her people – her daughter, mother-in-law
Olga (Lynn Redgrave) and sister-in-law – back in the city’s
ghetto.
A chance encounter – a boy she used to play tennis with
in Russia recognises her and gives her her due as royalty –
is overheard by Todd Jackson (Fiennes) whose interest is pricked,
even if he cannot see her physical beauty.
Jackson decides to carry out his dream: to open the perfect
club in Shanghai and he hires Sofia to be his hostess.
While the two are evidently attracted to each other, their relationship
is pristine and non-sexual, adding to the building tension of
a Japanese invasion about to descend.
James Ivory’s direction gives the actors the room they
need to breath and both Richardson and Fiennes are brilliant
here. |
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