The White Countess – In Shanghai, Christopher Doyle with James Ivory and Kazuo Ishiguro
Christopher Doyle is working with James Ivory on a film called White Countess screenplay written by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Plot Outline: Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd — and sometimes illicit — jobs to support members of her dead husband’s aristocratic family. (Yahoo, Imdb). This seems not be an adaptation of Ishiguro’s novel “When We Were Ophans” which also takes place in Shanghai. Ralph Fiennes, the Redgrave women (Natasha, Vanessa and Lynn) all star in this film.
Going back to Chris D. found this article, “He can barely stop himself laying into Lost in Translation. “It’s articulating the Bush doctrine of how to engage with the rest of the world. Let’s all be Americans, that’s what it’s saying.” (Wow, Sofia paid a tribute to Wong Kar Wai in her Oscar acceptance speech. She must work with materials she feels close to and she only knows of the bored and the rich Americans. )
Christopher Dolye’s life so interesting that I overlook his Asian bias. Watch all the films he made in the past and you participate in an important film history in progress.
Working with Wong Kar Wai, Richard Corliss from Time Asia wrote, “Cinematographer Christopher Doyle matches the director’s artistry and energy with a luscious camera style that sees beyond surfaces into essences. He takes ravishing pictures of troubled souls.” More on here.
Have not seen 2046, or Last Life in the Universe. Can’t wait to see them.
C. Dolye made two films with his fellow Aussie director Philip Noyce. “The Rabbit Proof Fence” and “the Quiet American” were excellent.
(The Not So Quiet American by Zizek, here.)