Normally, the hyphenated name Merchant-Ivory would be synonymous with high-quality, very textured period dramas that had within them a social edge. During the early Nineties they reached their pinnacle with such stories and made actors such as Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Anthony Hopkins bring forth beautiful, measured performances that upon an initial view could be dismissed as "veddy, veddy English" but actually evolve into studies of human nature at its best, worst, and in the middle.
After their last success, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, where Merchant-Ivory focused on a novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro, they went into a progressive slump. Movies such as JEFFERSON IN Paris went virtually unnoticed, and it seemed that they'd reached a nadir in THE GOLDEN BOWL. While neither movie had a lack of quality, the team's slow decline in the later Nineties probably took place because of changing sensibilities in cinema and the inevitable preference for two extremes: fantastic blockbusters and independent movies.
Not belonging to any of these two, Merchant-Ivory soon followed other directors who once had enjoyed their time under the sun -- Antonioni, Allen, Bergmann, Bertolucci come to mind -- and who now only had a small following consisting mainly of people who still had a love for this more measured type of movie making. Watching THE WHITE COUNTESS, however, was a little like watching a faded photograph: nostalgic, but distancing. Somehow, Kazuo Ishiguro's story seemed like something that had been produced in the Forties, glossy, melodramatic, even a little bit formula.
It didn't help that it had some fabulous actors in its cast. Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes have both done much better; here, they seem a little adrift. It's not a bad thing, but it doesn't make for a remarkable view. I can see where Ishiguro was aiming for -- something of a retread of CASABLANCA crossed with his own REMAINS OF THE DAY -- but I didn't quite buy it. Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave have little or nothing to do, and Hiroyuki Sanada doesn't fare better with his own part which has more than a passing resemblance to Claude Rains' character in CASABLANCA.
Plus, because of the unfocused nature of its story, it seems a little too long at 140 minutes. Even so, it's not a bad watch -- there are other directors who late in life have produced some of their worst work. As the last Merchant-Ivory production, it's still well above average, but mostly for devoted fans of their curriculum.
After their last success, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, where Merchant-Ivory focused on a novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro, they went into a progressive slump. Movies such as JEFFERSON IN Paris went virtually unnoticed, and it seemed that they'd reached a nadir in THE GOLDEN BOWL. While neither movie had a lack of quality, the team's slow decline in the later Nineties probably took place because of changing sensibilities in cinema and the inevitable preference for two extremes: fantastic blockbusters and independent movies.
Not belonging to any of these two, Merchant-Ivory soon followed other directors who once had enjoyed their time under the sun -- Antonioni, Allen, Bergmann, Bertolucci come to mind -- and who now only had a small following consisting mainly of people who still had a love for this more measured type of movie making. Watching THE WHITE COUNTESS, however, was a little like watching a faded photograph: nostalgic, but distancing. Somehow, Kazuo Ishiguro's story seemed like something that had been produced in the Forties, glossy, melodramatic, even a little bit formula.
It didn't help that it had some fabulous actors in its cast. Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes have both done much better; here, they seem a little adrift. It's not a bad thing, but it doesn't make for a remarkable view. I can see where Ishiguro was aiming for -- something of a retread of CASABLANCA crossed with his own REMAINS OF THE DAY -- but I didn't quite buy it. Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave have little or nothing to do, and Hiroyuki Sanada doesn't fare better with his own part which has more than a passing resemblance to Claude Rains' character in CASABLANCA.
Plus, because of the unfocused nature of its story, it seems a little too long at 140 minutes. Even so, it's not a bad watch -- there are other directors who late in life have produced some of their worst work. As the last Merchant-Ivory production, it's still well above average, but mostly for devoted fans of their curriculum.