White Countess, The

Aroview: Set in the tumult of 1930s Shanghai, when China was threatened with Japanese invasion, this final Merchant-Ivory production (producer Ismail Merchant died shortly after completion) concerns a blind American diplomat (Fiennes) who forms an attachment to a slightly shady Russian Countess (Richardson).

Together the two decide to open a nightclub called 'The White Countess', with which they can cloister themselves in a exotic world of their own making. Scripted by Kazuo Ishiguro (THE REMAINS OF THE DAY), this has a literate but rather rambling quality, with the plot's secrets frustratingly withheld until the final act. Still there a consolations for the patient viewer in the lovely cinematography of Christopher Doyle.

more matches…