The Painted Veil

"Lift not the painted veil which those who live / call Life [...] behind lurk / Fear and Hope, twin destinies". Thus spoke poet Shelley, and provided William Somerset Maugham with a title of his novel. In the book and in the film based on it (the first version was made in 1934, starring Greta Garbo), the painted veil stands for the vanity of mundane life, the empty, loveless life that Mr. and Mrs. Fane are supposed to live while the 1920s keep roaring. Kitty, a charming social animal, is blackmailed by her decadent family to marry inoffensive doctor Walter Fane and settle with him in Shanghai. Soon she makes a lover, but when Walter finds out he conceives a cruel punishment: she must follow him to a remote village in China plagued by cholera, where he can help the population and she can wither, forgotten by society. But the hard life in the village and at home proves that Kitty is stronger than he thinks. Slowly the couple falls in love, this time for real, but tragedy awaits round the corner.

Like every good melodrama, the film comes with a sleek technical and aesthetical package; the soundtrack even features celebrated Chinese pianist Lang Lang playing Satie. The two leading actors, also producers, give subtle performances that follow every nuance of their characters from mutual hate to mutual love: the cruel game the couple plays at home is scathing and unforgettable. Both Walter and Kitty have their reasons, although the film insists on presenting Kitty as a captive who has to follow social rules regardless of her feelings, and never gets what she wants; she is a conscious victim of her own status and tries to use sensuality as a way out. Walter is a noble soul but also a pathetic loser, which makes his rage all the more dangerous; nevertheless, at the end he is able to forgive his wife's weakness: he has changed his scale of values as well. The main difference between the 1934 version and this one is the theme of colonialism and Chinese nationalism: the old film took for granted that the white man came to China for a good reason, whereas the new version questions the role of Westerners in the Far East; a sign of the times, a further asset for director John Curran and scriptwriter Ron Nyswaner.

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