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The White Countess.       This was another Merchant Ivory production, but in collaboration with a Shanghai film company. The critics gave it mixed reviews, so I went to see it with somewhat scaled down expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.       The setting is Shanghai in 1936. The Japanese have already invaded northern China and control large swaths of territory north of the Yangtse River. Yet life goes on in Shanghai, the capital of sin and sophistication, much as it has for many years. The film focuses on the community of foreigners who lived and worked in the parts of the city over which the Western Powers and Japan had extra-territorial jurisdiction. Natasha Richardson plays the beautiful White Russian countess who, along with her daughter, cousin, aunts and uncles, ends up as a refugee in this city, which opened its doors to escapees from Russian Communism as well as Jews from Nazi Germany. Countess Sophia Belinskaya carries herself with dignity and understated elegance, even though she is working as a dancing girl (with vague hints that she does more than dance with her male customers) in one of the many night-clubs of this city dedicated to the relentless and unabashed pursuit of pleasure.         She meets Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), a blind American diplomat wishing to do good in a China torn by civil war and invaded by the Japanese armed forces. He appears to be disillusioned and disappointed by the political interventions of the Western Powers here and seeks a new beginning. A windfall from betting on a winning horse at the races enables him to achieve his dream of opening an upscale bar/nightclub, complete with cabarets and sing-song girls, which would be the watering-hole of all the disparate, sometimes contending cultural and political groups in Shanghai. He invites Sophia to act as hostess of this new establishment, rescuing her from the humiliating and meager living she has been eking out as dancing girl. He names it “The White Countess.” Gradually, their relationship develops, and this kind, shy, idealistic ex-diplomat’s past is revealed, bit by bit, like layers of an onion being peeled off. They feel protective toward each other and experience a growing mutual attraction. Eventually the Japanese invade Shanghai, the Chinese inhabitants bear the brunt of the attack but the foreign communities are also thrown into confusion and disarray. The cozy, luxurious bar that hosted the political and business elite of Shanghai, shielding it from the human dramas being played out in the city and from the destruction and suffering across China, would eventually be reduced to ashes. But the Countess for whom the bar is named and Mr. Jackson would have a future together.        Much of this is understated and rather skillfully and sensitively portrayed. Natasha Richardson brings to her role all the talents and experience of a fine Shakespearean actress and a seasoned veteran of the stage and television. She seems to have been perfectly cast for this role. Her gray-green eyes, often in intense steady gaze, sparkle like gems and are capable of expressing myriad emotions: from doubt, confusion and insecurity to determination, tenderness and love. Her Russian accent is very good and her regal bearing makes her a truly convincing countess fallen on hard times. Ralph Fiennes gives an equally effective performance in the lead male role, particularly in expressing the subterranean feelings of affection for Sophia and their growing intensity, conveying almost palpable sexual tension without his being able to see her and without so much as a single love scene.        Hiroyuki Sanada gives a credible performance as Mr. Matsuda, a local power-broker, with connections to many influential personages in this city of political intrigue and commercial preeminence. He seems tough and hard-nosed on the one hand, and worldly and urbane on the other. He befriends Jackson and helps to bring to “The White Countess” the kind of clientele that runs the whole spectrum of Shanghai’s upper strata: Communist generals, KMT (Nationalist Party) officials, international diplomats and businessmen. The friendship and collaborative relationship lasts until almost the end of the film, when Jackson discovers that Matsuda shares the militaristic and imperialist designs of the generals in Tokyo.         Sophia’s relatives include two aunts, Sara and Olga, played by Natasha Richardson’s mother and aunt in real life, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave. The former is kind and gentle, and the latter cold and judgmental. Sophia’s hard-earned wages go toward the upkeep of the family, living in cramped quarters in a Chinese house away from the foreign concessions, but she is treated shabbily and with disdain for the way she has to make a living. Eventually her relatives repay her kindness and loyalty with an act of treachery and betrayal.        One is stuck by the film’s evocative and sumptuous camera style, capturing the essence of a bygone era. There are scenes of Russian and Chinese children playing together, food vendors selling piping-hot dumplings and the traditional scallion pancakes, of the café life in what was called Frenchtown, and horrific sequences of waves of refugees battling to leave the city and of Japanese bombs falling on the Huangpu River, by which Shanghai’s inhabitants sought to row to freedom in small boats.                                                                                                    Jeffrey Tao                                                                                             February 2006     Return to Home