The White Countess

Sofia is the sole support of her family of aristocratic White Russian émigrés, including her daughter Katya, her mother-in-law Olga, her sister-in-law Grushenka, and an aunt and uncle by marriage, Princess Vera and Prince Peter.Ivory initially asked Ishiguro to adapt the Junichiro Tanizaki novel The Diary of a Mad Old Man, but he wrote an original screenplay based on his obsession with Shanghai.[4] In The Making of The White Countess, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, production designer Andrew Sanders discusses the difficulties he had recreating 1930s Shanghai in a city where most pre-war remnants are surrounded by modern skyscrapers and neon lights.[8] Stephen Holden of the New York Times said, "You couldn't ask for a tonier cast than the one that gamely tries to pump oxygen into the thin, filtered air of The White Countess ...But with its tentative pace, fussy, pieced-together structure and stuffy emotional climate, [the film] never develops any narrative stamina ... [It] has the familiar Merchant-Ivory trademarks: cultivated dialogue, a keen eye for the nuances of upscale society and a sophisticated, internationalist view of class and ethnicity.Mr. Ishiguro's prim, anemic screenplay is so lacking in drive and emotional gravitas that the actors are left with only scraps of lean dramatic meat to tear into."[10] Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times stated, "The Chekovian sight of so many Richardson-Redgraves lamenting their circumstances in heavily Russian-accented English and pining for Hong Kong, where their former social glory will be restored, makes you wonder if they'd have been better off in a stage production of Three and a Half Sisters: The Twilight Years ..."[11] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film three out of four stars and commented, "The convoluted screenplay ... makes it hard for director James Ivory to maintain an emotional through-line.This final production from the team of James Ivory and the late Ismail Merchant is itself adrift in more ways than one, with a literate but meandering script ... that withholds emotional payoffs to an almost perverse degree.Name cast and typically tasteful presentation should spark biz among sophisticated older viewers, though likely a fraction of what the Merchant Ivory pedigree used to command theatrically."[13] At the 10th Satellite Awards, the film was nominated for Best Costume Design (John Bright) and Best Sound (Mixing & Editing) (Michael Barry, Martin Czembor, Ludovic Hénault, Robert Hein).
James IvoryKazuo IshiguroIsmail MerchantRalph FiennesNatasha RichardsonVanessa RedgraveHiroyuki SanadaLynn RedgraveAllan CordunerMadeleine PotterChristopher DoyleRichard RobbinsSony Pictures Classicsdrama filmShanghai1917 Bolshevik RevolutionCountesstaxi dancerWhite Russian émigrésUS State DepartmentterroristSecond Sino-Japanese WarHong KongLee PaceYing DaJohn WoodThe Remains of the DayJunichiro TanizakiAndre Morganproduction designerThe GuardianSavannah, GeorgiaMonmouth County, New JerseyRotten TomatoesMetacriticweighted averageStephen HoldenNew York TimesCasablancaThe English PatientRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesShakespeare WallahMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleLos Angeles TimesChekovianPeter TraversRolling StoneVariety10th Satellite AwardsBest Costume DesignJohn BrightBest Sound (Mixing & Editing)The Shanghai DramaA Countess from Hong KongBox Office MojoThe New York TimesFandango MediaCBS InteractiveSFGateTravers, PeterInternational Press AcademyMerchant Ivory ProductionsThe HouseholderThe GuruThe Night of Counting the YearsBombay TalkieSavagesThe Wild PartyAutobiography of a PrincessRoselandHullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's PicturesThe Five Forty-EightThe EuropeansJane Austen in ManhattanQuartetThe Courtesans of BombayHeat and DustThe BostoniansA Room with a ViewMauriceThe DeceiversThe Perfect MurderSlaves of New YorkMr. & Mrs. BridgeThe Ballad of the Sad CafeHowards EndIn CustodyFeast of JulyJefferson in ParisThe ProprietorSurviving PicassoSide StreetsA Soldier's Daughter Never CriesCotton MaryThe Golden BowlThe Mystic MasseurLe DivorceHeightsBefore the RainsThe City of Your Final DestinationThe Delhi WayAdventures of a Brown Man in Search of CivilizationLumière and CompanyA Pale View of HillsAn Artist of the Floating WorldThe UnconsoledWhen We Were OrphansNever Let Me GoThe Buried GiantKlara and the SunNocturnesThe Saddest Music in the WorldLiving