The White Countess (2005) User Reviews (88)

Expatriots and Survival Explode in Shanghai

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 17 May 2006]

The team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Kazuo Ishiguro will unfortunately never offer another special film. THE WHITE COUNTESS is all the more meaningful as it was their last effort. While many viewers find this 138 minute film boring and plot less, there is a flavor here that could only be captured by this team.

Shanghai, 1936. While the disruptions in global existence created by World War I have created fearful evacuees of many countries to the old city of Shanghai, those émigrés survive by any means possible. Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) is an American diplomat who lost his wife, daughter, and eyesight in an accident and lives his blind existence visiting the music bars for solace. His dream is to own a music/dance/entertainment club and his fortune is changed by winning at horse racing. He encounters Countess Sofia Belinskya (Natasha Richardson), a woman of Russian royalty who has fled Russia with the fall of the Czars with her daughter Katya (Madeleine Daly), and her aunts Princess Vera Belinskya (Vanessa Redgrave) and Olga Belinskya (Lynn Redgrave) and Greshenka (Madeleine Potter) who live in a tiny loathsome apartment and are dependent entirely upon Sofia's income as a dance hostess in a seedy club. In their building lives Mr. Feinstein (Allan Corduner) and his Jewish family who likewise have sought asylum in Shanghai and who proffers kindness to Sofia's plight.

Jackson's winnings afford him the luxury of opening 'The White Countess' club at the encouragement of his Japanese friend Mr. Matsuda (Hiroyuki Sanada) and realizing Sofia's dignity and needs, Jackson makes Sofia the sophisticated hostess of his club. The dance of pre-World War II grows from a distant echo into a reality with the insidious growth in numbers of Japanese soldiers and soon the truth of the Japanese imperialism intentions becomes evident. The émigrés begin to escape Shanghai and in the midst of Sofia's family's escape to Hong Kong her aunts make it known that Sofia must stay in Shanghai: her work as a dance hall hostess would smear their reputation as they return to a position of royalty! Jackson and Feinstein intervene to prevent Sofia's loss of her daughter and the slowly evolving relationship between Jackson and Sofia is clarified.

There is plenty of plot for the active mind in this story, and in the style of Merchant Ivory productions the story unfolds gradually, layer upon layer, in a study of atmosphere embroidered by words. The setting is stunningly beautiful to see, and the unfolding of the story is as painfully slow as the life of displaced people in a foreign city can be. Times change, moods alter, events metamorphose and at the end of the film the events of the story are well braided. Natasha Richardson is radiant as Sofia, a woman of style who graciously does what it takes to survive. The Redgrave sisters exude the embarrassment of being bereft of their regal breeding in the squalor of Shanghai. Fiennes is a broken man with so much pride that he fears vulnerability. Sanada embodies the elegance and grace with which the Japanese adroitly usurped China into their Great Plan.

Yes, the film could use some editing, but one can understand why editor John David Allen would have had difficulty in cutting the beauty of the cinematography of Christopher Doyle and Yiu-Fai Lai capturing the costumes of John Bright and the sets of Andrew Sanders and Qi Bian. This film is more an atmosphere than story and requires the viewer to submit to the manner of relating the tale. But in the end it is a beautiful work and sadly the last of a series of great films by an incomparable team. Grady Harp

A fine Fiennes and two generations of Redgraves.

[ikanboy · 7/10 · 19 February 2006]

It is Shangai sometime before WWII. Ralph Fiennes is a blind American, Jackson, who was once a diplomat, but is now, from what little the movie will reveal to us, a consultant to an American business, known only as "the Company." It becomes quickly obvious that he is jaded and disillusioned, and becoming a nuisance to his firm, as he sleeps through meetings, drinks too much, and is plainly irascible.

Natasha Richardson plays a Russian woman, Sofia, who lives with a family that has fallen on bad times, in a cramped apartment. At night she dresses up and goes to a nightclub, where she makes her living as an up scale B girl. She has a daughter, but the rest of the family seems to want to keep them apart, as if the mother is tainted. We slowly pick up that they view her job with distaste and, while living solely off her earnings, want to keep themselves and her daughter away from any of the embarrassment of her job rubbing off on them. The sister in law seems especially possessive of the child, possibly because he reminds her of her dead brother. To all of this Sofia is strangely passive.

We then find out that the family is an aristocratic family, forced to leave Russia, trying to get to Hong Kong, where presumably the British and other Russian ex-patriots will welcome them for what they were, and not for what they have become. Natasha is a countess, of the group that were known as white Russians: those who opposed the communists.

Fiennes finds out her secret and is intrigued. He has a dream: to open a special nightclub where Natasha can hold court as a hostess. He puts all of his money on a horse race and wins and opens the club.

The relationship between the two is proper and, at Fiennes insistence, distant. He makes it clear he wants to know nothing of her private life, and wishes to share none of his own. He is not only physically blind but wants to turn his back on the realities of the world, hoping to create the world of his choosing - inside his own head. With a mysterious Japanese mentor he creates the world that is outside his club inside it, by filling it with people of the same diversity as are about to clash on the outside. He picks his women like an aficionado, his bouncers like a coach, his musicians according to his own esoteric tastes.

As a World war is looming we know his private dream world will be shattered. Will the couple's relationship bloom before it is too late? The catalyst is the daughter who, as a child, sees straight to the heart of the matter. If her mother's boss is "so nice," why does she ignore him in public? But neither is willing to let go of the past that haunts them, and so they allow the child to slowly entangle them.

Then the Japanese attack, and the Countess's family decides to skip to Hong Kong on a boat, with the $300 that they have pressured her to get from Fiennes. They don't care what she has to do to get it, and they'll look down on her for doing it anyway, but they'll be safe. Then the real perfidy of her mother-in-laws intent becomes clear. The countess has to stay behind, because, if they are to get back into society, she would be a mill stone around their necks. Worse they will take her daughter with them.

Ralph Fiennes is the American, whose guilt has shattered him. The two Redgrave sisters (Vanessa and Lynn) do excellent work at creating a dysfunctional, morally vapid, family, that Natasha (Vanessas daughter) cow tows too. It's nice to see Liam Neeson's wife back in acting, as she really is the center piece of the movie. The movie's pace is slow, and nuance is everything. Both main characters are such that I wanted to shake them, but then that is the point: passivity and guilt have crippled them. The film was actually filmed in Shangai, one of the pluses of the end of the cold war. A cast of thousands who don't have to be paid scale.

Perhaps not Ivory's best

[kate_lee-movie · 7/10 · 13 November 2005]

I had an opportunity to see this movie at a screening. The White Countess is not scheduled to open in theaters until December, so it was a very early screening. I am saying this because I have a little bit of doubt that what I saw was the final cut.

Based on a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Saddest Music in the World, and the original novel for the movie, Remains of the Day), and featuring a magnificent cast (including Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave in addition to Fiennes and Richardson), this last Merchant-Ivory film (Ismail Merchant died this year) has bred a great expectation in movie lovers' hearts. I regret to say what I saw was not the best of Merchant-Ivory.

It is Shanghai in 1930s where all different sorts of Europeans and Americans established their ways of living inside the ancient Chinese city. The story is about an American middle-aged man who lives in a world inside his head, blind to the world around him. Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) is a former American diplomat who lost his vision. Yes, and yes—in both physical and psychological sense. He had buried his wife and a son after a house fire, and a few years after that, lost his only surviving child in a terrorist bombing incidence that also took away his sight. It is no surprise that the man is in a bitter despair. He becomes a man of lost faith. In his darkness, Jackson obstinately clings to and cultivates a rather esoteric ideal—creating a perfect nightclub. When Jackson meets Sofia Belinsky (Natasha Richardson), a Russian Countess who is forced to work dishonorable jobs to support her dead husband's family and her daughter, he immediately sees in his head a perfect centerpiece for his dream club.

One thing that is extraordinary about this movie is the beautiful acting performance. Fiennes, often called the best internal actor of his generation, gives a stunningly exquisite performance as the blind man who resides in a world inside his mind—take just an example of the shadow of disappointment casting down on the lonely man's face when his new friend Matsuda bids him good night after a long night's conversation about nightclubs in Shanghai. It somehow makes cinematic sense that a person who cannot see other people's faces inadvertently reveals his soul with most minute movements of eyes and facial muscles. Although Fiennes' delicate features and willow physique do not quite conjure up the image of Humphrey Bogart to which the Jackson character curiously alludes, Fiennes makes a perfect bar owner in the style of Rick Blaine (Casablanca) meets Oscar Hopkins (played by Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda).

Richardson wonderfully materializes "the perfect combination of the erotic and the tragic" and gives a heart-breaking performance as the aristocratic woman fallen to the reality of a horrid and abject life, and a mother who is going to do anything to save her child's future.

And so—here I am facing the unpleasant task of talking about the rest—it is pity that the director James Ivory lets these actors stand there bare and alone. Hardly any cinematic device is utilized to foreground the emotion or romance of this couple. The result is quite devastating. The romance sparkles moment by moment through the wonderful work of these two talented actors, but those moments do not connect well with each other, lost and found and lost again. Some scenes seem to need more editing work. For example, the horse race scene looks like a raw material from a daily—very awkward. For the lack of romantic fire, the screenplay is partly at fault in its meagerness. Although it contains an abundance of intriguing metaphors and keen observations on human lives, the screenplay does lack something—be it suave packaging of romance or absorbing dialog. But ultimately, I blame the director for not coming up with solutions to make the whole thing work better.

I normally love Ivory films. I don't know why this one did not work for me. Perhaps Ivory is not a man for romantic materials. Or perhaps the death of his partner, Merchant, took its toll on this film. In any case, if what I saw last night was the final version, Fiennes and Richardson might not be able to be rescued from this movie during this Oscar season.

Glimmers faintly perceptible

[Chris_Docker · 6/10 · 22 March 2006]

The dreams of two unlikely strangers form the basis for this sophisticated drama – one of a world that has been lost and the other of a world that has yet to be found.

Snowflakes fall mysteriously in a grand ballroom somewhere in Russia, echoed in the mind of a beautiful girl in a slum district of Shanghai 1936. Natasha Richardson is a countess, fleeing the Bolshevik revolution, making a living any way she can to support her family. This means working in shady dance halls as a taxi-dancer (and presumably, occasionally, as a prostitute). Her five family members (all older except for a young daughter) loathe the shame she brings on them but have no other means of support.

Ralph Fiennes is a disillusioned US diplomat. He has helped the formation of the League of Nations, is a successful business man, and a hero Chinese nationalists, but has seen all the best efforts to have people live in peace come to nought. Shanghai is full of political tensions – just before the Sino-Japanese war. Fiennes finds solace drinking in lowlife bars and avoiding what he sees as the hypocrisy of those that hold him in such high regard.

A vast amount of talent has been poured into this film: it is the final collaboration of Merchant and Ivory (Ismael Merchant died shortly before final production), the screenplay is by the award winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (who worked with them on Remains of the Day), the other crew are top notch, and the cast also includes both Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave. Yet there is no easy conclusion when asking if it is a major triumph.

The film has a pervading sense of the unexplained, which continues for its whole length (over two hours), so piecing it together is not easy. The politics of the time and place are probably not familiar to most audiences, and the bewildering array of nationalities does not help. Ishiguru's talent is for transcending the material content and taking us into the world of ideas, but it needs most of our concentration to accept the material idea of Shanghai 1936 (which, although painstakingly recreated, often feels like a film set inhabited by a well-known English cast). Not surprisingly, there may be little energy left over for more cerebral imaginings. Fiennes is an American, Richardson and the Redgraves are Russian – even before we meet the Jewish neighbour, the French Consul, a Japanese nightlife connoisseur - and none of the main characters (or actors) are Chinese. But then the ideas are not particularly Chinese either – Shanghai is nothing more than Ishiguro's canvas.

Prising out the dreams gives us some clues. Richardson (Sofia) is no tart-with-a-heart. Their Jewish neighbour, also a refugee, has fled such horrors that mere verbal insults (the worst he has to suffer in Shanghai) fall off him like a deaf man. But Sofia's family are less self-assured. They dream of a decent existence, but Sofia has the greatest moral fibre, in spite of her job. She receives the respects of a Russian Prince – now working as a porter. She warns Fiennes (Jackson) – who is also blind – of a hidden danger and gains his lasting respect.

Jackson has noticed that in the dance halls there are no politics. He longs for a nightclub where people of any political persuasion can relax and mingle freely. Like Sofia, he is tarnished by all the rules of the real world, but his aspirations are higher than his outward lifestyle and the 'bigger picture' of those that would judge him.

Early in the film, Sofia says to a co-worker, "All of us here have to fall in love from time to time to feed our children," yet the film turns many ideas of 'love' on their head before it reaches its (thankfully) emotionally resounding climax. Equally ironically, Jackson speaks of the "vague promise of an intimate encounter" (in an ideal nightclub) when the reality is that merely the vague dream of any intimacy of feeling is the most either he or Sofia feel they could even hope for.

As a meditation on the commonality of death and sex, of the impotent struggle of goodness and taste against the wars that mankind seems addicted to, The White Countess has much to offer. The image of Fiennes in overcoat and bow-tie, calmly pouring brandy as the bombs fall around him, sticks in the mind like the scream of a child. Director James Ivory could have underscored such moments to much greater effect than allowing them to be swallowed in a complex story and an unfamiliar period of history. Fiennes' character seeks some political tension that stops short of violence, but his character – and the film – often lack that very quality.

What seems at first like instant noodles, badly re-heated, holds more sustenance than most will sadly give this film credit for; and if it is a triumph for the Merchant Ivory / Isuguro team, it is one, like its characters and their dreams, so heavily flawed that the aficionados who draw anything from it may well be accused of an over-active imagination.

A Broader Canvas with Big, Heavy Doors

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 22 January 2006]

Greetings again from the darkness. One can always count on a Merchant/Ivory film to appear soft and flowing on the outside and explosive on the inside with a pinch of unrequited love on the side. The misleading smile on Ralph Fiennes face and the gentleness of Natasha Richardson mask the inner turmoil only to themselves.

Fiennes plays Todd Jackson, an infamous former U.S. diplomat who worked wonders with the Chinese government. Sadly his life took an awful turn when he was blinded and his daughter killed during a tram bombing. His life a mess, Jackson "sees" his idea for an entertainment establishment in his head. Once he has secured the funding, he selects his "centerpiece" ... former Russian Countess Sophie (Richardson). Their business relationship is highly successful but does nothing to help Richardson's torturous family situation. Watching their worlds collide, with an assist from warring nations is a slow and painful ride.

Richardson is simply terrific and elegant as Sophie. Her scenes with Fiennes and her scenes with her family are magnificent and powerful. The only thing preventing the film from being truly top notch is the over-reliance on subtlety in the Fiennes/Richardson relationship.

Outstanding support work is provided by Hiroyoki Sanada as the mysterious Mr. Matsuda, but the real treat for film lovers is the opportunity to see Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave together on screen. As is customary for Merchant/Ivory, the direction is a bit heavy-handed and dialog extremely limiting, but the strong performances allow the film to be very solid and watchable.

Wonderful cast let down by dreary direction

[MCMoricz · 6/10 · 2 January 2006]

Sorry to say that despite the incredible pedigree of everyone concerned, this film was disappointing. It is beautifully shot and designed, with all the elegance and taste that one comes to expect from Merchant-Ivory, and of course the literary sensibility seems even more marked due to the scripting by Kazuo Ishiguro.

But the film is lifeless. It has plenty of aesthetic style but it has no momentum or vigor. The very accomplished performances by a truly wonderful cast are somewhat wasted when the pace is so glacial and the overall sense of film-making seems so stodgy and fatigued.

I am reminded of how frustrating I found, years ago, Merchant-Ivory's adaptation of Ishiguro's REMAINS OF THE DAY to be, despite again a stellar cast. I know there are people who would disagree strongly with me, but all the fascinating tragic interior sense of the butler's thoughts that made the book so absorbing and moving could not be communicated in a motion picture, no matter how talented an actor Anthony Hopkins is, so we wound up spending a couple of hours looking at a great actor nearly expressionless as he worked so hard to make his proper and repressed character neither register any emotions on his face nor express any in what he said.

Here again we have the same problem. There are huge emotions under the surface here, but because of the foreground sense of repression (and because of the cool-to-the-point-of-leisurely-and-moribund film-making style) we wind up watching Ralph Fiennes do his own version of Hopkins' "sorry, I can't say or feel or show anything because my character is supposed to be so repressed" act.

Granted, these are essential, trademark issues in Ishiguro's work. But it seems that without the vivid interior turmoil so eloquently expressed in his prose to help illuminate the character's stoicism, the result on screen is just....bland. Natasha Richardson fares much, much better, since her character need not be as repressed. And her performance is stunning. And John Wood makes the most out of what is essentially a TWO-LINE role(!!).

Actually, the whole Russian family is handled as a tour-de-force by the acting ensemble, and probably would have been enough to really put this picture over-the-top had not the fatally inexpressive scenes of Jackson and Matsuda ballasted the work into such a torpor. Some of this heaviness is admittedly inherent in Ishiguro's script, but I sense the very same words could have been imbued with the same gravity without nearly the somnambulent wooziness Ivory has made out of them.

I am an unabashed fan of Merchant-Ivory's work, and am saddened by the recent death of Ismail Merchant. The team of Merchant/Ivory/Ruth Prawer Jhabvala/Richard Robbins has created some real cinematic milestones. Two of the Forster adaptations are masterpieces, and many of the Indian films are rare gems. So I'm not one of those who find this dynasty to be too "artsy" or whatever other criticisms have been leveled at them by impatient filmgoers.

Yet "impatience" is indeed what I ultimately felt with this plodding execution. It was a frustrating experience, not the least because I could see how close Ivory was to achieving what he must have wanted to achieve, and how hard everyone must have worked to create that sense of Shanghai on the eve of its tragic invasion by the Japanese. It has all the elements of a great epic, but fails to become one due almost completely to the weirdly anemic sense of passionless, momentumless, drearily uninspired film-making.

Blindness

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 22 January 2006]

If there ever was a film with the right elements in it, this was it. After all, James Ivory was directing and the screen play by Kazuo Ishiguro, who had worked with the director before, to much better results in "The Remains of the Day". Alas, this film has a flat feeling, in sharp contrast with the other films by Mr. Ivory.

We are taken to the Shanghai of the thirties which was a city with a large international community. Among them, the story finds the impoverished Russian aristocrats that are living in need. Horror of horrors, Countess Sofia is forced to work in a dive, often frequented by low life characters. Although it's left to our imagination, could this poor aristocrat be also one of "those women"?

It is there where Todd Jackson, a blind American with a lot of influence in the right circles, meets Sofia and decides to ask her to be the hostess for the new night club he wants to start. Into this picture walks a Japanese business man, Mr. Matsuda, who befriends Jackson. Matsuda has a hidden agenda, as he wants to mix different groups of opposing sides at night spot.

The Japanese invasion puts an end to Jackson's dreams. At the same time, Sofia is able to get the needed amount of money for she and the family to go to Hong Kong. The only problem is that Olga, the family matriarch has another idea in mind: Sofia must stay behind! The problem with the film is that there is not enough tension, or passion, in these people on the screen. In a way, this movie doesn't convince us these characters are real.

The mostly English cast does what it can, but they have done much better before. The magnificent Vanessa Redgrave has nothing to do, which is the ultimate sin of the movie. Ralph Fiennes' Jackson is not one of the best roles he's ever played. For that matter, Natasha Richardson, with the phony Russian accent, doesn't add anything to the story.

In a way, the movie feels empty. We can't even imagine an Ivory-Merchant production this shabby before. Maybe the problem lies with the untimely death of Mr. Merchant. The film needed some editing and trimming because with a running time of 138 minutes, is just too long.

An in-depth look at The White Countess

[tomosterbind · 10/10 · 1 July 2006]

The White Countess achieves the "perfect balance of romance and tragedy." It is the story of two broken souls who each end up being the remedy to the other's fall from grace. While this description may not point to anything extraordinary on its own, Natasha Richardson (Countess Sophia Belinsky) and Ralph Fiennes (Todd Jackson) dazzle us with outstanding performances in this final Merchant-Ivory film. Superb acting, complex characters, and visually stunning sets make for a realistic, timeless five-star drama.

Ralph Fiennes plays the role of Todd Jackson, a disillusioned American ex-diplomat. The loss of his family and vision to Chinese-Japanese political turmoil destroy his hopes and prospects for the world. The disappointment in the stagnant progress of the League of Nations drives Jackson away from the desperate political scene, and he attempts to shut out all reminders of an uncontrollable painful world. He goes on spending his time frequenting Shanghai's classiest bars, surrounding himself in luxury and warmth. He finds friendship in a Japanese man named Matsuda who shares his dreams to create the perfect bar. People warn Jackson that Matsuda is a feared political revolutionary; however, this has no impact on their relationship—Jackson has completely shut the doors to the outside world. Fiennes expertly sticks to his character delivering the heavy, demanding lines with eloquence while appearing to be truly blind.

In his quest to create this perfect bar he runs into Countess Sophia Belinsky a Russian Aristocrat who has fled to Shanghai escape the Bolshevik Revolution. She is living with her late husband's family and her daughter, Katya. She single-handedly supports them by prostituting herself despite their assailment and complete lack of gratitude. Jackson finds in her the perfect balance of romance and tragedy and asks her to be the centerpiece of his bar and names it of her. Natasha Richardson emanates a deep sadness and longing for a once beautiful world and lets the audience feel what Jackson finds in Countess Sophia.

The two of them succeed in creating their own controllable world. With the right music, the right crowd, and a sense of political tension, Jackson feels he has made his dream come true. However, at the end of the night, Countess Sophia must return to the slums and the outside world with all its troubles and other unpredictable variables. As Jackson's relationship with Sophia develops, he begins to realize the impracticality of his "heavy doors". This accompanied with Matsuda's luring of a "broader canvas" slowly cause Jackson to emerge from his shell. At the end of the film, Jackson and Sophia return to the outside world together with a new hope found in one another.

The themes of isolation and alienation are rampant in this film and occur on many levels. Sophia is shut off from her family and eventually abandoned because of her disgraceful job. Jackson is blind physically and mentally from the real world. They are strangers in a foreign country, a country whose sole foreign policy for the past several centuries has been isolationism (they built a wall to keep people out). These instances are not simply strewn about but are intricately woven into the plot to create a deeper, more meaningful story.

The White Countess explores devastation and new hope, heartbreak and new love, and shows us the hopelessness of walls and cages. We can always close our eyes but that doesn't mean everything around us will disappear.

cold beauty

[Vincentiu · 9 April 2013]

aesthetic delight. impressive cast. inspired story. and slice of a dark history presented with precise, delicate grace. but all is a impressive collection of ice pieces. like in a theater play in which words, gestures and relations between characters are only fragments of reality sketches. the vision of Ivory is not a surprise and the hard work of actors to maintain a large construction is admirable. but the film, full of real virtues, has not soul. it is only a marble statue who impress, enjoy, but nothing more. the viewer is only a museum visitor. is it enough ? maybe not. but it is not fair to consider it a disappointment. only example of cold beauty and new demonstration of Ivory art.

I got shanghaied into believing this was going to be a great movie

[johno-21 · 7/10 · 3 February 2006]

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival. with it's cast and storyline and subject matter I fully expected going into it that it would end up on my list of top 10 favorites from the festival but it didn't. This was a big film and but it didn't quite live up to being a big film. This film should have been filled with tension and romance but it delivered neither. There of course was a beautiful style to this movie and an excellent cast but not a whole lot for the dream team cast to do. There was a lot of implausibility to the story that I couldn't quite get past. Good music, great sound and great period costuming and a great stage set with a real feel for 1936 Shanghai. It's still a good movie and I would recommend it but I would rate it a 7 out of a possible 10.

Witless Piece of Film-making

[richard-n · 1/10 · 8 January 2006]

From the esteemed team of Merchant-Ivory comes this witless piece of film-making, a sad denouement to its legacy of several quality, beautifully-crafted films produced over the past two decades.

How could any film with such a wealth of talent comprised of some of the greatest actors in the English-speaking world end up as little more than a B movie with a senseless plot, characters that are only partially drawn and a script with atrocious dialogue is a mystery to me? Lynne Redgrave overacts to the point of embarrassment. Natasha Richardson whines and bemoans her lot in life completely unconvincingly and Ralph Fiennes merely mumbles unmemorable lines with yawing boredom.

The audience is expected to believe the unbelievable. That in the midst of the Japanaese invasion of Shangahi a blind man (Mr. Finnes) can not only find his way about the streets but also everyone he is looking for as he is battered and jostled about first one way and then another by thousands of people fleeing for their lives is simply too preposterous to believe.

The production values which in past Merchant-Ivory films played such a critical role in establishing and confirming time and place are simply dreadful.I can only assume that this film had a budget of $1.99.

This is a film is search of itself let alone an audience and not even worthy of a life on DVD!

Slow & Relatively-Unknown, But Very Rewarding, Beautiful Film

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 29 March 2007]

It took the last 30 minutes for me to fully appreciate this film. That's because the first 105 minutes are very, very slow. If it weren't for the wonderfully rich visuals, I might not have stuck with this story. Obviously, I'm glad I did because the story snapped out of its doldrums and, at the same time, wrapped up everything nicely leaving the viewer (at least, me) very satisfied. But - a warning - as mentioned, you must have a lot of patience to make it to that rewarding conclusion.

I just marveled at the cinematography, the great sets, the muted and beautiful colors that seem to be the trademark of these magnificently-filmed "Merchant and Ivory movies." I am speaking of course, of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, director and producer, respectively. That's a team that will sorely missed by we fans of their films. (Merchant died recently, making this the last of their collaborations.) That collaboration includes writer Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote this movie. These three guys all worked on "The Remains Of The Day," one of my all-time favorite movies and books.

This Ishiguro story is set in mid-to-late '30s in Shanghai. Ralph Fiennes plays a blind American, "Todd Jackson," an ex-diplomat who wants to get away from politics and run the nightclub of his dreams. He has the whole place mapped out in his head. Natasha Richardson ("Countess Sofia Belinskya") is a high-class escort-service-type woman working in a lower-class bar who unselfishly sacrifices her dignity to help support her unappreciative family. Todd and Sofia meet one day in that bar, he is extremely impressed with her, and later hires her to run his new place, called The White Countess, once it's opened. Along the way, Todd meets a Japanese man "Mr. Matsuda," who we find out isn't the altogether nice guy we thought he was, as it's revealed trouble always follows him.

In the end, this drama comes to life as the Japanese overrun the city and everyone flees for their life. Sofia's family tries to leave without her. The countess desperately goes after them because that family includes her precious young daughter. Fiennes realizes, at the last minute, he doesn't want to live life without Sofia and she he tries to find her among all the chaos. It's a very suspenseful ending.

In you enjoy classy-looking films, character that you wind up caring about, and a drama that is rewarding, this is a film not to miss. I'm afraid it didn't get much notice, at least not like the other Merchant-Ivory films, which is a shame. The last I saw, this was mixed in with garbage films selling for $2 at the video store. What a shame!

This is an underrated, under-publicized and beautiful movie.

Straining for artsiness, it's a bit lame. But overall, not without merits. It's watchable and entertaining!

[bopdog · 7/10 · 3 April 2006]

This is a likable, if sometimes very slow movie, despite the clichés and heavy-handed style. As I watched it, I became aware of flaws (such as Ralph Fiennes' 'artistic' American accent floating in and out of range), but I also was aware of a richness of atmosphere that kept me in my seat to view the entire movie to its conclusion. Sometimes the plot and dialogue seemed to be ticking off steps, or points, in some kind of Merchant-Ivory Artsy Movie handbook. The fact that it actually WAS a Merchant-Ivory artsy flick continued to come as a bit of a surprize to me as I kept having to remind myself that this was not some cheesy rip-off, but, apparently, the 'real thing'. Even the writer also wrote 'Remains of the Day' some years back. Maybe the 'real thing' has gotten a bit long in tooth, a bit stale?

The drama seemed forced at times. The complexity of characterization, setting, and the mixing of exotic and complex elements also seemed a bit forced, as if someone were trying a little too hard to be 'international', literary, and deep.

And yet, for all of that, the performances were good. Fiennes, Richardson, and the secondary cast were all capable. The Redgraves were HORRIBLE people!!! As they were meant to be, of course, so I guess that's good acting--- even stellar. Overall, the appeal of the actors, and the texture (as over-wrought as it sometimes was, in a way) was sufficient to intrigue me and entertain me. This movie clearly seems to have aimed to be another 'The English Patient', or some such. But it simply does not make it. It is not a '10' by any stretch of the wishful imagination. But it IS a strong 7 out of 10. Take your old lady to it. If you're a chick yourself, hasten to the multiplex! If you're a dood... and you're not with a lady, then wait for the DVD.

Should Have Been Called The White Elephant

[msm-7 · 2/10 · 4 February 2006]

This movie is a feast for the eyes--wonderful photography and beautiful people and costumes--but not for the senses. Little chemistry between the two main characters. Both appeared rather emotionless and passive. Hence, as far as the main characters were concerned, entire movie was rather lifeless and dull. As a result, the movie itself required the viewer to work too hard to fill in the story line. The characters themselves gave little hint as to what they were feeling or thinking about one another, the people they knew or lived with. They seemed to be sleepwalking during the entire movie. Therefore, any life that could be found in the movie came from the location and the circumstances in which the movie was set. As a result, the movie dragged on too long. Seen all of Merchant Ivory films, but this one was the least enjoyable.

Excellent period piece

[GaryMinich · 20 May 2006]

The acting in this film is superb. Natasha Richardson was convincing as a displaced Russian aristocrat, not totally comfortable in English. Her mannerisms were perfect, both for the character and the period. Ralph Fiennes's attempt at an American accent was a little off-putting until I got used to it. In any case, I can think of no one better to cast in this part. I also have to think the creators captured the essence of 1930s Shanghai as the international city headed into World War II. It wasn't until the credits rolled that I realized why the mood was so familiar; this comes from the pen of the author of "Remains of the Day," the wonderful Anthony Hopkins/Emma Thompson epic from the early 1990s.

She Makes Every Second Count

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 31 March 2006]

It seems fairly clear that the night club owned by Ralph Fiennes and named The White Countess is meant to be seen as a sort of Rick's Bar East, from its cosmopolitan clientele', political overtones, the need for 'papers' and last, but not least, a backdrop of war, in this case the Sino-Japanese variety. It's equally clear from the comments I've read - mostly from the USA - that not many people are fully conversant with the expression 'White' Russian, which simply refers to members of the Russian aristocracy that came to an abrupt end in 1917, after which date all Russians, whether or not active Revolutionists, were 'Red'. So here we have ex-aristo Sophia (Natasha Richardson) roughing it with her titled family in Shanghai; two of the family members are Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave both woefully underused especially Vanessa in a role that anyone just out of Acting School could have done standing on their head. Merchant-Ivory do themselves no favours by choosing to remind us of Casablanca; whilst it's true that Natasha Richardson has inherited her all of her mother's heartbreaking beauty (well, leave us not lose our heads, about 90 per cent of it) it's equally true that the curiously wooden Fiennes is light years short of both Bogie's charisma and talent. There was more chemistry between Yassar Arafat and Golda Meir than between Fiennes and Richardson and when they ARE your love story then you got trouble, my friend, right here in River City. The best we can give this is an E for Effort.

An unlikely pair

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 2 September 2016]

Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson make an unlikely pair of first business partners then lovers in The White Countess. Richardson in the title role is an exiled Russian countess who couldn't make it west to places like Paris, so they went east and she wound up in the foreign quarter of Shanghai.

One has to remember that before 1949 all the western powers and Japan had carved out spheres of influence for themselves where their law was supreme. No Chinese government was able to do anything about that since the British made the first move with the Opium War of 1841.

It is here that Ralph Fiennes a blind American former diplomat has made his home. He's pretty much disillusioned with the world and what western imperialism has done to it. It's his ambition to own an elegant place like Rick's in Casablanca where the rude awakenings of the world he helped make can be kept outside.

Part of that plan is that he needs a woman of class to front for him and who better than a Russian Countess who like the rest of Russian aristocracy supported the Whites against the Reds and lost all. She's doing what a girl has to do to survive and support her family. But Richardson does it ever so elegantly.

I'm sure the current Chinese government was more than willing to have a foreign film company shoot a film in Shanghai showing a bad period in their country's history. Old Shanghai is marvelously recreated by the Merchant-Ivory team.

This was a Redgrave family project with mother Vanessa and aunt Lynn to Natasha Richardson appearing as other Russian White exiles. Soon two of them would no longer be with us.

Fiennes and Richardson give some finely etched performances as people who need each other professionally and personally to make it from day to day. They are an unlikely pair, but who's to tell them?

Not the best Merchant-Ivory film, but pretty good.

Flat

[nycritic · 6/10 · 29 June 2006]

Normally, the hyphenated name Merchant-Ivory would be synonymous with high-quality, very textured period dramas that had within them a social edge. During the early Nineties they reached their pinnacle with such stories and made actors such as Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Anthony Hopkins bring forth beautiful, measured performances that upon an initial view could be dismissed as "veddy, veddy English" but actually evolve into studies of human nature at its best, worst, and in the middle.

After their last success, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, where Merchant-Ivory focused on a novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro, they went into a progressive slump. Movies such as JEFFERSON IN Paris went virtually unnoticed, and it seemed that they'd reached a nadir in THE GOLDEN BOWL. While neither movie had a lack of quality, the team's slow decline in the later Nineties probably took place because of changing sensibilities in cinema and the inevitable preference for two extremes: fantastic blockbusters and independent movies.

Not belonging to any of these two, Merchant-Ivory soon followed other directors who once had enjoyed their time under the sun -- Antonioni, Allen, Bergmann, Bertolucci come to mind -- and who now only had a small following consisting mainly of people who still had a love for this more measured type of movie making. Watching THE WHITE COUNTESS, however, was a little like watching a faded photograph: nostalgic, but distancing. Somehow, Kazuo Ishiguro's story seemed like something that had been produced in the Forties, glossy, melodramatic, even a little bit formula.

It didn't help that it had some fabulous actors in its cast. Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes have both done much better; here, they seem a little adrift. It's not a bad thing, but it doesn't make for a remarkable view. I can see where Ishiguro was aiming for -- something of a retread of CASABLANCA crossed with his own REMAINS OF THE DAY -- but I didn't quite buy it. Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave have little or nothing to do, and Hiroyuki Sanada doesn't fare better with his own part which has more than a passing resemblance to Claude Rains' character in CASABLANCA.

Plus, because of the unfocused nature of its story, it seems a little too long at 140 minutes. Even so, it's not a bad watch -- there are other directors who late in life have produced some of their worst work. As the last Merchant-Ivory production, it's still well above average, but mostly for devoted fans of their curriculum.

Good Effort but Plods

[pc95 · 6/10 · 30 July 2010]

With an international cast and much of the movie actually set on location, "The White Countess" seems to have most of the design needed to bring out pre-WWII era China, but the director, Ivory, may be a bit too ambitious. The sets and styles seem often too set-like for their own good, and draw attention to themselves - extras seemed like extras, costumes like costumes, explosions more like fireworks and so on and so forth. Understandably the main character Jackson's in sort of a malaise, but the movie plods along despite it's in your face character development. There seemed to be little chemistry between actors Fiennes and Richardson as well. The acting and dialog is well enough though - the movie needs a little more going for it than bar-scene after bar-scene and murky political dialog. It's a near miss for me.

a truly wonderful film

[delharvey · 10/10 · 29 December 2005]

I was caught up in this film from the very beginning. For me, Richardson's performance is Oscar-worthy and Fiennes does a credible job as a recently blind diplomat doing his best to hide from the realities of the world by creating a world of his own. This film could be considered "Casablanca" turned on its head, where people of all different races and religions and beliefs come together at a nexus of great social turmoil, and the story of two small people doesn't amount a hill of beans to anyone but us, the audience. The White Countess is one of my favorite films of 2005. And I have to admit I'm not much of a Merchant-Ivory fan, but this one was truly exceptional.

Chekhov in Shanghai

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 21 June 2018]

"The White Countess" was the last film made by the Merchant-Ivory partnership before Ismail Merchant's death. Most of their films were set either among the upper-middle-classes of England or America, or in Merchant's native India, but the setting for this one is, unusually, Shanghai in the late 1930s. Despite that setting, however, none of the major characters is actually Chinese.

The title character is Countess Sofia Belinskaya, one of a family of White Russian émigrés who have escaped the Bolshevik Revolution but have sunk into poverty in Shanghai, a city which at this period had a large European community. Sofia is forced to earn a living as a nightclub hostess. (It is hinted, but never definitely stated, that her work may involve an element of prostitution). Although her earnings are their only source of revenue, her snobbish aristocratic family look down on her because of her occupation which they regard as unworthy of a Countess; they even forbid her to mention her work in front of her young daughter, Katya. The family's great hope is to save enough money to escape to Hong Kong where they believe that they will have a better life than in Shanghai. This belief may well be mistaken, but for them Hong Kong takes on a significance similar to that of Moscow for Chekhov's Three Sisters. Chekhov, in fact, seems to have been an influence on Kazuo Ishiguro's screenplay, with its theme of impoverished Russian aristos.

The film deals with the romance which grows up between Sofia and Todd Jackson, a blind former American diplomat, who now runs his own nightclub. Over the course of the film we learn how Todd lost his sight, and also about another tragedy in his past. Todd invites Sofia to work in his club, paying her more than she earned in her previous job, and names it "The White Countess" in her honour.

Like most Merchant-Ivory dramas, this one is strong on period detail, but it is rather drab in appearance and lacks the visual appeal of some of James Ivory's earlier efforts. The film is slow-moving, but the same could be said about a number of Merchant-Ivorys, and this is not necessarily a fault. In my view the main drawback is that the emotional temperature is too low for what is, after all, a film about love and grief. I would not place the blame for this upon the actors; indeed, there are very creditable performances in the leading roles from the late Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes, both playing characters desperately trying to find happiness after great misfortune and personal tragedy. Two of Sofia's older female relatives are played by Natasha's real-life mother Vanessa Redgrave and her aunt Lynn Redgrave. Fiennes, more normally seen as an upper-class Englishman, makes a convincing American (with an accent possibly based upon James Stewart's).

Rather surprisingly, in my view the main fault lies with the screenplay, even though it was written by a distinguished who was later to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Except at the very end when war breaks out between China and Japan, the script seems too bloodless, lacking both in dramatic tension and in passion. Stephen Holden of the "New York Times" said of the film that "What is missing ............. is a racing, dramatic pulse. Its sedate tone is simply too refined for the story it has to tell", and my own view would be similar. It is sad that the Merchant-Ivory partnership, which had been responsible for films as good as "The Europeans", "A Room with a View" and "Howard's End", could not have ended on a higher note. 6/10

Fiennes appeared drugged

[wdmoss · 2/10 · 14 May 2006]

What a chore it was to watch this movie. Richardson was wonderful; her mother, Vanessa, was magnificent in a much too short role; Fiennes was not just bad but abominable. Not only could he not play a convincing American but he also was totally unconvincing as a blind man. He appeared to be in a drug-induced stupor throughout the film. His character's emotional range was nonexistent. His walk, his speech, everything he did was wooden and, frankly boring. How he developed a friendship with the Japanese character was a mystery. Perhaps this movie would have been just as bad had they cast another actor in his role, but I doubt it. I gave this movie one point above awful only because of Redgrave's and Richardson's skill.

A beautiful, other worldly movie, not for the faint-hearted

[tuffley-1 · 8/10 · 28 May 2007]

The poignancy of this movie outweighs any shortcomings in the directorial department. I found myself immersed in the milieu of 1930's ShangHai, a place and time I had only read of and subsequently wondered about.

The real strength of this movie is the accessibility with which powerful emotion is portrayed. I found I had real empathy for the characters.

The characters were played superbly by one of the most pedigreed casts I've seen in a while.

The pace was slow, but measured and well-suited to the plot.

Ralph Fiennes was a convincing lead -- the image of him reminds me of TS Eliot mixed with Rick Blaine (Casablanca).

Natasha Richardson is brilliant in this role. Understated and quite believable.

All in all a beautiful, other worldly movie, and not for the faint-hearted.

power and limits of melodramas

[dromasca · 6/10 · 13 October 2006]

When a romantic film is set in an exotic location, when much of the action happens in a night club, when the time is around World War II comparison with 'Casablanca' is inevitable. Indeed, 'White Countess' aspires to be a 21st century replica of the wonderful classic, but 'Casablanca' it ain't.

If the film was done 50 or 60 years ago, it would have worked much better. However, the melodramatic lines cannot fail seeming syropous nowadays, the interest for Russian emigration cannot have a Romantic aura in another epoch when another Russian emigration has so different traits, and the story has too many credibility problems to be capable to save the day. What we are left is yet a decent movie, with excellent camera work and exquisite performances from actors like Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson, but yet a film out of synch not only with modern cinema but also with the emotions of the viewers. It is a test in the limits and power of melodrama in modern cinema, but a mostly failed test, I am afraid.

Visually Stunning But Far Too Ponderous As a Historical Epic of Grand Romance

[EUyeshima · 5/10 · 23 June 2006]

All the familiar Merchant Ivory touches are here in their last collaboration - a rich historical setting, characters who struggle quietly with their emotions, deliberate pacing and luxuriant production values. But sadly, this 2005 romantic epic is a plodding, overly fanciful production despite the best efforts of producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a shame given the pedigree, but the movie does provide quite a few visual images of arresting power, especially during the climactic exodus scenes with masses of people emptying Shanghai amid junks engulfed in flames. It is the broad tableaux aspect of the production that most resonates.

Set in 1936 Shanghai, the story focuses on an American expatriate named Todd Jackson, a blind widower who falls for Sofia, a Russian countess who has been exiled and forced to support her extended family as a taxi dancer. Aided by a mysterious but friendly Japanese man who becomes his friend, Jackson opens up his own plush bar named after her, the White Countess, and she is the glamorous centerpiece of the establishment. Her cruel mother and disapproving sister denounce Sofia's profession, although emotional support comes from her dowager aunt and Samuel Feinstein, a kindly neighbor who is constantly persecuted for being Jewish. Meanwhile, the Japanese are invading Shanghai forcing all the locals to escape their tyranny.

Reminiscent of "Casablanca" and "Doctor Zhivago", this all sounds compelling, and as a political backdrop, it is. However, the glacial pace of the plot undermines the passion needed to make the movie truly involving for the viewer. In fact, the emotionally cloistered characters that inhabit most Merchant Ivory films, including this one, just seem out of place here. As Jackson, Ralph Fiennes manages to transcend his conflicted character with his usual dexterity, even though his role fluctuates wildly between heroic and naïve. Sporting a somewhat saturated Slavic accent but lacking in the requisite charisma, Natasha Richardson is less successful in the title role with her world-weary demeanor coming across as rather affected. More impressive are the actors in the smaller roles, in particular, Hiroyuki Sanada as the enigmatic Matsuda; Allen Corduner as the supportive Feinstein; and in an ironic (though I assume, intentional) role reversal, Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, as well-meaning Aunt Vera and Richardson's aunt, Lynn Redgrave, as Sofia's judgmental mother Olga.

The technical aspects of the production are first-rate from Christopher Doyle's lushly expert cinematography (he has done several of Wong Kar-wai's films including the dazzling "2046"); Andrew Sanders' period-perfect production design and John Bright's evocative costumes. The extras on the 2006 DVD are standard issue with Ivory and Richardson lending revealing insight in the alternate commentary track. There are also three brief featurettes included - the first a somewhat self-congratulatory behind-the-scenes short with brief comments from cast and crew, the second a making-of short that speaks to the more technical aspects of the production and the third a respectful tribute to Merchant, who died in May of last year.