Page 22 - Fujifilm Exposure_31 The White Countess_ok

THE WHITE COUNTESS
“It was a new territory for us but we were working with people who, like us, really believe in cinema. There has, after all, been a tradition of making films there for the past 55 years so it was a good sort of marriage between us.”
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Set in the late 1930s on the brink of World War Two, it’s the story of the relationship between a blind and disil- lusioned former US diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) and a refugee White Russian countess (Natasha Richardson) reduced to a sordid life in the Shanghai’s notorious bars.
The impetus for the project, their 47th film, was the long friendship between producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and writer Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel, The Remains Of The Day, proved to be one of MIP’s biggest hits a dozen years ago.
Ishiguro’s book was adapted by others for the screen but after “knock- ing ideas to and forth” with the com- pany he came up with his own original screenplay for The White Countess, which was first hatched while doing research for his fifth novel, the Shanghai-set When We Were Orphans.
At first, Ivory, now 76, hadn’t planned to make the project his 25th cinema feature being merely content
With a strong financial commit- ment from loyal supporters Sony Pictures Classics, Merchant, Ivory, Bradley and production designer Andrew Sanders made their first recce to China about a year ago not only to look at Shanghai itself but also to meet possible investors.
“We met with a range of people based in both Beijing and Shanghai but our first choice partners were always the Shanghai Film Studios, part of the Shanghai Film Group, the city’s largest media company. They obviously had all local contacts with the various permis- sions required and could help us nego- tiate the myriad bureaucratic tightropes you have to walk,” said Bradley.
“It was,” Merchant emphasised, “quite amazing. First of all it was a new territory for us but we were work- ing with people who, like us, really believe in cinema. There has, after all, been a tradition of making films there for the past 55 years so it was a good sort of marriage between us.”
As well as stumping up around $2 million of the film’s $16 million budget and providing about 90 per cent of the crew, Shanghai Film Studios also, as part of the package, came up with their... well, studios. At Chedun, about 10 miles out of town, the state-owned facility boasts full-time art and cos- tume departments and an extraordi- nary 30-hectare backlot featuring street scenes from Old Shanghai, notably the notorious Nanking Road complete with working trolley cars.
Bradley enthused: “We’re used to looking at backlots in Western studios which are mainly frontages and very temporary. But this is 1930s Shanghai built to scale absolutely for real with bricks and mortar and working rooms. It’s quite breathtaking.
“Because of the massive redevel- opment of Shanghai over the last five years or so, this tends to cut down your location opportunities. Yes, some old stuff does still exists and there are some bright little enclaves but the
to help “Ish” form an effective screen- play. But according to producer Paul Bradley, another long-time MIP man, “as it developed, Jim recognised it was a fantastic story, full of themes he could strongly relate to and began to get very excited about it.
“He became more and more involved in the process of finalising that script and so the project gravitated closer and closer to him. It now seems almost inconceivable that anyone else could have directed it,” added Bradley.
There are two ways in which local companies can help foreign filmmak- ers. You can be either an “assisted co- production” whereby the studio works merely as a location and crew facilita- tor, or an “official co-production”, which means an altogether closer financial and creative relationship. The latter way is also much more valuable for the Chinese co-producer because, among other things, it entitles him to distribution rights in Hong Kong, Taiwan and, of course, mainland China.
view you can get to them is very nar- row. Although we ended up probably doing some 60 per cent of the film in the studio, we still managed to find some fantastic locations including old 30s dance halls, which we patched up and recreated. It helped give us a fan- tastic feel.
Also helping to achieve that “feel” and the overall look was first-time MIP collaborator, Aussie-born but Hong Kong-based cinematographer Chris Doyle HKSC. His Far East experience
has previously encompassed such eye- catching films as 2046, Hero, In The Mood For Love, Temptress Moon and The Quiet American, working with directors like Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Phillip Noyce.
At first glance, the idea of the free- wheeling Doyle partnered with
Photos main, above and far right: scenes from The White Countess; right: DP Christopher Doyle HKSC
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