LONDON - 3 May 2007 - 585 words
Movie:
The Painted Veil
Fr Peter Malone
Based on the novel by W Somerset Maugham
and set against the visually stunning backdrop of China during
one of its most dramatic periods of upheaval, The Painted Veil
tells a unique love story of an estranged husband and wife who
find redemption and unexpected grace in a very unlikely place.
This is a film for an adult audience that can be recommended both
for its fine technical qualities and for its explorations of themes
of infidelity, reconciliation, forgiveness and atonement.
Somerset Maugham created several strong female characters in his
novels. There was Sadie Thompson in Rain (portrayed on screen
by Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth) who, in isolated
and tropical settings, tormented a man of God. There was the
unfaithful Leslie Crosbie of The Letter, again in the tropics,
(portrayed on screen by Jeanne Eagels, Bette Davis and Lee Remick).
There was the unfaithful Mildred Rogers of Of Human Bondage (portrayed
on screen by Bette Davis, Eleanor Parker and Kim Novak).
His Kitty Wane in The Painted Veil is less forceful than these.
She too is unfaithful but has the opportunity to redeem herself
- and be redeemed by her husband and his work among cholera victims.
Maugham, who trained and qualified as a doctor, was also interested
in religious and spiritual themes in such works as The Razor's
Edge where a man goes in search of himself in the East.
This version of The Painted Veil was filmed in China. The cinematography
of Shanghai and of the mountains and rivers of South China make
a magnificent background to the plot. Alexandre Desplat's evocative
score has won a Golden Globe award.
The setting is 1925, China. Flashbacks build up the story of
the western man and woman being carried through the countryside
on chairs. He is a shy and rather uptight bacteriologist from
England (Edward Norton most persuasive in the role) and his socialite
and spoiled young wife, Kitty (Naomi Watts proving that she is
an actress of skill and substance). We soon learn that she did
not love her husband despite his devotion to her and has had a
dalliance with a worthless diplomat (Liev Schreiber) in Shanghai.
Her husband volunteers to go to a remote village to help in a
cholera epidemic and, quietly vengeful, forces his wife to accompany
him.
The film develops the themes of colonialist presence in China
and the growing resentment and violent protests as well as the
themes of Chinese need for contemporary medical practice and hygiene.
In the village are a group of French nuns who run an orphanage
and who are helping in the crisis, many of them dying. Diana
Rigg plays the superior, a practical and devout woman who delivers
some very moving dialogue about her vocation, her love of God,
her passion for God and how as she has grown older, they are like
an old married couple sitting together, taking each other for
granted, a maturing up and down love.
The plot develops in the tense relationship between husband and
wife, in the hard work of the doctor, in the passive aggression
of the military chief who finally breaks through the rituals and
pride of the local warlord to change the practices of the people
concerning the dead which are contributing to the spread of the
disease.
The end of the film is moving, showing that hard circumstances
and shared self-giving can transcend bitterness and hurt and that
love and forgiveness are not impossible.
© Independent Catholic
News 2007
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