The White Countess [DVD]

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James Ivory directs this period drama, starring Ralph Fiennes. In 1930s Shaghai, Sofia (Natasha Richardson) a peniless Russian countess displaced by the revolution and civil war, is forced to take work as a taxi-dancer and bar girl in order to support herself. There she meets blind diplomat Todd Jackson (Fiennes), who opens a sophisticated bar called 'The White Countess' and asks her to work for him. As their strange and hesitant relationship progresses, they find themselves torn apart by the Japanese invasion of the city. From .co.uk ----------- A stellar cast and an intricate script enhance this last film from the elegant producing/directing team of Merchant/Ivory (creators of A Room with a View, Howards End, and more). Set in 1930s Shanghai, "The White Countess" is both Sofia (Natasha Richardson, Patty Hearst), a fallen member of the Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat named Jackson (Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient), who asks Sofia to be the centrepiece of the world he wants to create. Sofia accepts to escape a life of prostitution, but Jackson's world proves both fragile and volatile--as does Shanghai itself, on the verge of an invasion from Japan. The script, by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day), is fundamentally about culture--what it is, how it's formed, how it shapes and is shaped by human desires--but to describe it thus makes the movie sound academic. Instead, it's lush and subtle, fluid in how it weaves together two people deeply wounded by past losses, who gradually come to embrace what the immediate moment has to offer. Fiennes and Richardson are the movie's core, but surrounding them is a stunning supporting cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave (Mrs. Dalloway, Julia), Lynn Redgrave (Shine), Allan Corduner (Topsy-Turvy), and Hiroyuki Sanada (Ringu).--Bret Fetzer