The White Countess (2005)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

James Ivory

Writer:

Kazuo Ishiguro (written by)

Release Date:

10 February 2006 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Plot:

Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd -- and sometimes illicit -- jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.

Plot Keywords:

Blindness | Jew | Pandemonium | Jazz Music | Animation

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Natasha Richardson	...	Countess Sofia Belinskya
Lynn Redgrave	...	Olga Belinskya
Madeleine Potter	...	Grushenka
Madeleine Daly	...	Katya
John Wood	...	Prince Peter Belinsky
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Princess Vera Belinskya
Allan Corduner	...	Samuel Feinstein
Timur Engalychev	...	Feinstein Child
Lucy Sutton	...	Feinstein Child
Amir Maimon	...	Feinstein Child
Itay Eltahan	...	Feinstein Child
Dan Herzberg	...	Frenchman
Aislín McGuckin	...	Maria (as Aislin Mcguckin)
Dong Fu Lin	...	Taxi Dance Hall Manager (as Lin Dong Fu)
Ralph Fiennes	...	Todd Jackson
Da Ying	...	Kao (as Ying Da)
Terence Harvey	...	Walters
Jeff Harding	...	Company Director
Paul Birchard	...	Company Director
Lee Pace	...	Crane
Hiroyuki Sanada	...	Matsuda
Pierre Seznec	...	Russian Singer
Dragan Micanovic	...	Ilya
Xiao Jun Zong	...	Chinese Foreman (as Zong Xiao Jun)
Alex Frolov	...	Pickpocket
Kirill Khmelnitshi	...	Pickpocket
Luoyong Wang	...	Liu
Alexandar Richardson	...	Young Ilya
Rachel Partington	...	Young Sofia
Ramin Razaghi Sefati	...	Stallholder
Nicole Utterbeck	...	American Girl
Young Fu Fan	...	Fu (as Fan Young Fu)
Ke Qin Yao	...	General Ji Deng (as Yao Ke Qin)
Jin Quan Liu	...	General Shen Yinchu (as Liu Jin Quan)
Manouk Tideman	...	Christina
Matt Eaton	...	Man Reading Paper
Charles Reston	...	Jealous Young Man
Hong Lan Hou	...	Columbine
Kyle Rothstein	...	Harlequin
David Sutton	...	Punchinello
Tomas Hernell	...	Pierrot
Violaine Motte	...	Cat and Monkey Dancer
Jimbo	...	Cat and Monkey Dancer
Jean-Pierre Lorit	...	Antoine Jacquier
Len Marchi	...	Hospital Doctor
Geoffrey Lieter	...	Anti-Semite
Shu Chang	...	Woman Helping Jackson
Tetsuro Uragami	...	Japanese Officer
Zheng Hua Shu	...	Trumpet Player (as Shu Zheng Hua)

Directed by
James Ivory

Writing credits
Kazuo Ishiguro		(written by)

Produced by
Rahila Bootwala	....	associate producer
Paul Bradley	....	co-producer
Andreas Grosch	....	producer: VIP Medienfonds 3
Richard Hawley	....	co-producer
Yue-Sai Kan	....	associate producer
Patrick Ko	....	executive producer
Ismail Merchant	....	producer
Andre Morgan	....	executive producer
Zhong-lun Ren	....	producer: Shanghai Film Group (as Ren Zhonglun)
Andreas Schmid	....	executive producer: VIP Medienfonds 3
Marcus Schöfer	....	executive producer: VIP Medienfonds 3
Ben Spencer	....	assistant producer
Daqing Wang	....	executive producer: Century Hero (as Wang Daqing)
Tianyan Wang	....	executive producer: Shanghai Film Group (as Wang Tianyun)
Fu Wenxia	....	executive producer: Shanghai Film Group

Original Music by
Richard Robbins

Cinematography by
Christopher Doyle		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
John David Allen

Casting by
Celestia Fox

Production Design by
Andrew Sanders

Art Direction by
Chen Shaomian
Steve Simmonds
Yu Bai Yang		(as Yu Baiyang)

Set Decoration by
Bin Lan		(as Lan Bin)
Bian Qi
Wang Shanqing

Costume Design by
John Bright

Makeup Department
Carol Hemming	....	hair designer
Carol Hemming	....	makeup designer
Martina Kohl	....	makeup- & hair department head
Claudia Moseley	....	assistant to hair designer
Mary-Anne Waite	....	makeup associate (as Mary-Anne Waite)
Christie Wang	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
Zhu Bin	....	production manager
Arie Bohrer	....	production supervisor: VIP
Pierre Proner	....	production supervisor
Aaron Shershow	....	unit production manager
April YeFang	....	production manager: pre-production (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ben Burt	....	second assistant director
William Cheng	....	first assistant director: China
George Every	....	first assistant director
Gerry Gavigan	....	first assistant director: UK
Da Hong	....	crowd assistant director
Eliot Mathews	....	third assistant director
Charles Reston	....	trainee assistant director
Wei Wei	....	second assistant director: China

Art Department
Sadiya Chowhan	....	art department runner
Tony Harris	....	construction manager: UK
Zhongquan Hu	....	construction manager (as Hu Zhongquan)
Zhu Liangde	....	assistant art director
Xue Menglong	....	construction manager
Lin Qingwei	....	production buyer
Xiaosong Que	....	art department coordinator
Wang Shicheng	....	art department runner
Han Shonglai	....	construction chargehand
Zhou Shuhao	....	art department translator
Leipei Tao	....	construction chargehand (as Tao Leipei)
Colin Thurston	....	property master
Shen Yibin	....	set painter
Lingen Yuan	....	property master (as Yuan Lingen)
Zhu Zengkang	....	draughtsman
Yuan Zhiqiang	....	picture car coordinator

Sound Department
Coll Anderson	....	sound effects design editor
Michael Barry	....	sound re-recording mixer
Brian Bowles	....	adr editor
Martin Czembor	....	sound re-recording mixer
David Flynch	....	foley editor (as Dave Flynch)
Robert Galvin	....	sound recordist: UK
Robert Hein	....	sound designer
Ludovic Hénault	....	sound engineer
Bobby Johanson	....	adr engineer
Richard King	....	assistant sound editor
Sylvia Menno	....	dialogue editor
James Nichols	....	consultant: Dolby Sound
Glenfield Payne	....	sound effects editor
Jay Peck	....	foley artist
Christophe Penchenat	....	boom operator
Sarah Jean Porter	....	apprentice sound editor (as Sarah Porter)
Li Qian	....	assistant to sound department
David Wahnon	....	dialogue editor
Mike Wood	....	adr editor
Ryan Collison	....	foley engineer (uncredited)
Mark DeSimone	....	adr mixer: New York (uncredited)
Peter Gleaves	....	adr mixer (uncredited)
Margot Massie	....	sound (uncredited)
Dan Murphy	....	sound syncist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
David Fletcher	....	special effects supervisor
Thomas Kittle	....	special effects foreman (as Tom Kittle)
Rick Sun	....	special effects department translator
Zhu Weiyuan	....	special effects: SFS

Visual Effects by
Doug Compton	....	animator: Asterisk
J. John Corbett	....	digital artist: Big Film Design
Quan Han Dong	....	animation designer: Asterisk
Brian O'Connell	....	creative supervisor: Asterisk
Richard O'Connor	....	animation producer: Asterisk
Janos Pilenyi	....	optical supervisor: Cineric (as Janos O. Pilenyi)
Ariel Enriquez Saulog	....	digital supervisor: Cineric
Winnie Tom	....	animator: Asterisk
Jamie Hediger	....	digital compositor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
John Bailie	....	focus puller: UK
Qian Defeng	....	camera grip
Yang Dejun	....	camera grip
Tommy Finch	....	gaffer: UK
Kin Kwong Ho	....	second focus puller (as Ho Kin Kwong)
Jianmin Ji	....	gaffer (as Ji Jianming)
Zhao Kaiyou	....	camera grip
Tomoko Kikuchi	....	still photographer
Yiu-Fai Lai	....	director of photography: second unit (as Lai Yiu Fai)
Tony Pierce-Roberts	....	director of photography: UK
Li Qiang	....	Steadicam operator
Chun Chung Tsang	....	first focus puller (as Tsang Chun Chung)
Jiandong Wen	....	lighting best boy
Ho Po Wing	....	dolly grip
Jiandong Yu	....	lamp operator

Casting Department
James Calleri	....	additional casting
Matt Eaton	....	extras casting assistant
Patrick Kelly	....	casting assistant to producer
Jennifer Wang	....	extras casting assistant
Xu Wiguang	....	casting coordinator: SFS
Wang Zuanqing	....	casting coordinator: SFS
Alex Johnson	....	casting assistant (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rosie Grant	....	wardrobe mistress
Antonny Luo	....	translator: costume department
Sheena Napier	....	associate costume designer
Philip O'Connor	....	costume assistant (as Phil O'Connor)
Richard Sale	....	wardrobe master
Yingjuan Xiao	....	wardrobe master: SFS (as Xiao Yingjuan)
Meng Xie	....	assistant to costume designer (as Meg Xie)
Cunzhong Zhang	....	wardrobe master: SFS (as Zhang Cunzhong)

Editorial Department
Leo Bahas	....	negative cutter: Atlab Australia
James Cohen	....	assistant editor
Benjamin Cox	....	apprentice editor
Olivier Fontenay	....	colorist: Atlab Australia
Olivier Fontenay	....	head of production: Atlab Australia
Giles Gardner	....	first assistant editor
John Hill	....	first assistant editor (as John Andrew Hill)
Vicki McRitchie	....	negative cutter: Atlab Australia (as Vicki Mcritchie)
Vijay Sekhon	....	assistant editor
Xiaoming Zhang	....	post-production consultant

Music Department
David Bahanovich	....	musical consultant: Russiann historical music
Andrew Burashko	....	musician: piano solo
Martin Erskine	....	musical arrangement: additional arrangements
Martin Erskine	....	orchestrator
Tass Filipos	....	music editor
Roger Flock	....	musician: percussion
George Gao	....	musician: erhu
Jamie Hopkings	....	conductor
Jamie Hopkings	....	orchestrator
John Huie	....	musician: Shanghai jazz
Lui Li	....	musician: Chinese qui
Cory Mandel	....	scoring mixer: Toronto
Andy Morris	....	musician: percussion
Morgan Neville	....	assistant to composer
Mark Skazinetsky	....	concertmaster
Chen Tao	....	musician: Chinese flute
Yong Li Xie	....	musician: zheng
Ron Korb	....	musician: flutes (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Zhongshu Tao	....	transportation captain (as Tao Zhongshu)

Other crew
Catherine Allinson	....	script supervisor
Karole Armitage	....	choreographer
Brooks Baldwin	....	dialect coach
Randall Balsmeyer	....	main title designer: Big Film Design (as Randy Balsmeyer)
Kate Barker	....	electronic press kit
Susan H. Bodine	....	production counsel (as Susan Bodine)
Michael Chai	....	assistant accountant
Zoe Chen	....	liaison: Shanghai
Kris Chung	....	assistant: Ismail Merchant
Melissa Chung	....	production coordinator
Lin Chuxiong	....	location production coordinator
Lanny Dong	....	assistant production coordinator
Kerstin Dyroff	....	production coordinator: VIP
Florian Harms	....	legal advisor: VIP
He Jin	....	translator: SFS
David Kempski	....	production assistant: production office
Sunil Kirparam	....	production accountant
Lisa Li	....	production assistant
Leonora Lonsdale	....	runner: assistant director department
Yu Minhua	....	production runner
Eva Neufahrt	....	production controller: VIP (as Eva Marie Neufahrt)
Simon Oxley	....	production coordinator: UK
Claudia Sendlbeck-Schickor	....	tax advisor: VIP, McDermott
Armen Stevens	....	assistant to producers
Ingrid Sun	....	assistant: Ralph Fiennes
Christie Wang	....	translator
Minnie Wang	....	assistant: Natasha Richardson
Berit Wetzel	....	legal advisor: VIP
Young Yongling	....	production assistant
Su Yongwei	....	assistant location manager
Marilyn Zhuang	....	translator: assistant director department
Miranda Zhuang	....	translator: location department
Zhi Ying Dong	....	assistant production coordinator (uncredited)
Kelly Messias	....	assistant: Ralph Fiennes (uncredited)
Ayca Sadikoglu	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Geoffrey Stott	....	dailies supervisor (uncredited)

Thanks
Chris Humphrey	....	grateful thanks: Virgin Atlantic
Paolo Mantini	....	with gratitude to
Richard Soames	....	special thanks: FIlm Finances Inc.
David Tang	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Merchant Ivory Productions (presents)
• Sony Pictures Classics (presents)
• Shanghai Film Studios (presents) (as Shanghai Film Studios Corporation)
• VIP 3 Medienfonds (as VIP Medienfonds 3)
• Global Cinema Group (in association with) (as Peter Elson - Global Cinema Group)
• Rising Star (in association with)
• White Countess Productions (copyright owners)

Distributors

• Global Cinema Group (2004) (non-USA) (all media) (sales)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• Alfa Films (2006) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Gaumont/Columbia TriStar Films (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• Medusa Distribuzione (2005) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Mongrel Media (2006) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Television (2006) (USA) (TV)
• Sony Pictures (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
• Wise Policy (2006) (Japan) (all media)

Special Effects

• Cineric (opticals and end titles)
• Asterisk (animation produced by)
• Big Film Design (additional opticals)

Other Companies

• AON/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Services  insurance (as AON/Albert G. Ruben)
• Century Hero Film Investment Company  special thanks (as Century Hero Investment Ltd.)
• China Film Co-Production Corporation  supervised by
• Cinerent  unspecified
• Cleveland Travel  grateful thanks
• English Heritage  grateful thanks
• Falco Ink.  unit publicity (uncredited)
• Film Finance  special thanks
• Fujifilm  released on
• Glen Gould Studio, CBC Toronto  original score recorded at (as CBC Toronto)
• Hilton Hotels  grateful thanks
• MAC Cosmetics  cosmetics (as M.A.C)
• McDermott, Will & Emery  tax advisors: VIP (as McDermott)
• Natexis Banques Populaires  production banking services
• Sisley Paris  cosmetics
• Sound One  sound re-recorded at
• Virgin Atlantic Airways  grateful thanks (as Virgin Atlantic)

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

UK | USA | Germany | China

Language:

English | French | Mandarin

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:PG | Ireland:PG | Finland:K-11 | Sweden:11 | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:Atp | USA:PG-13 (MPAA rating: #42172)

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Trivia:

The racehorse scene uses stock footage taken from Seabiscuit (2003).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Katya is having her hair combed, a fly lands on her forehead - and then jumps onto the camera lens.

Quotes:

Sofia: If you have any objections, kindly go to hell.
Todd Jackson: You tell 'em!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2005-12-24)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Look at Me (Xu wo xiang ni kan)

Wonderful cast let down by dreary direction

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.