The Painted Veil

作者：Jennifer White 发布时间：2007-4-2

   新片《面纱》讲述了20年代一对年轻的英国夫妇来到中国乡村生活的故事。他们经历了在家乡的舒适的生活中无法想像和体验的情感波澜，并领悟到了爱与奉献的真谛。

   Based on the classic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veilis set in the 1920s. It tells the story of a young English couple, Walter, a middle-class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married hastily for the wrong reasons and relocate to China, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China damaged by a deadly disease, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship. They experience a transformation they never imagined when they lived comfortably in Britain, and they finally learn to understand and accept each other in one of the most remote and beautiful places on Earth.
   In the eyes of westerners, the 1920s in China was an interesting period. One could find people with the Manchu plait, people who were in Western dress and westerners as well. One could still see Sun Yat-sen in his military uniforms, and warlords wearing grand ceremonial clothing. It was a time when many things overlapped. This film is about westerners who came to China either to try to change China or to give China assistance, and what happened to them. Walter is a typical westerner in that era in China. He’s slightly arrogant. He thinks he can come and fix things in China, although he doesn’t have a very broad view of Chinese culture, politics or history. Meanwhile, Kitty, a restless woman who is dissatisfied with her marriage, sets out on a journey of self-discovery that begins with cheating on her conservative husband and ends with battling disease in the Far East.
   When this project was announced several years ago, it was said that Nicole Kidman would play Kitty, but later she dropped out and was replaced by Naomi Watts, who shares a startling resemblance to Kidman.
   Naomi Watts was born in England in 1968. Her family settled in Australia when she was fourteen. She coaxed her mother into letting her take acting classes when they arrived. Watts met her best friend, Nicole Kidman, when they both auditioned for a commercial and they shared a taxi home. It wasn’t until David Lynch cast her in the critically acclaimed film Mulholland Dr. (2001) that she began to be noticed. Her part showed her strong acting ability and wide range and earned her respect, and some even said that she was unfairly overlooked for an Oscar nomination that year. Stardom finally came to Watts in the surprise hit The Ring(2002), which launched her into the spotlight.
   Edward Norton, a Yale graduate who majored in history, plays Walter in the film . Norton has always been interested in acting. He attended theater schools, and eventually managed to find work on stage in New York. In a courtroom thriller, PrimalFear12, a young actor to star opposite Richard Gere was needed. The role was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, but he turned it down. Gere was about to walk away from the project, fed up with the wait for a young star to be found, when Norton auditioned and won the role over 2,000 other hopefuls. Norton won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Primal Fear(1996).
   Edward Norton says his latest role as an arrogant British doctor out to change the world is a little like today’s America. \"The interesting thing is that I think that resonates even now. That’s a part of the story that I think is relevant to what’s going on in the United States. We’re still doing that. We’re still sending people to other countries with this notion that we can solve other people’s problems, without really understanding the depth of the cultural forces that are at work there. I think that even though this story takes place in the 1920s, the messages in it are very relevant, especially in the United States right now. In fact, the United States today keeps on making the same sort of mistakes.\"

   Release Time: January, 2007
   Director: John Curran
   Starring: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Anthony Wong, Liev SchreiberStudio: Warner Independent Pictures
   Genre: Drama, Historical, Romance
   
Notes:
   1. infidelity n.(夫妻或伴侣间的)不忠行为
   2. vengeance n.报复,复仇
   3. plait n.发辫,辫子
   4. Sun Yat-sen 孙中山
   5. warlord n.军阀
   6. overlap v.重叠,交叠
   7. arrogant adj.傲慢的,自大的
   8. startling adj.惊人的
   9. coax v.哄劝
   10. audition v.试演,试唱
   11. Mulholland Dr.《穆荷兰大道》
   12. PrimalFear《一级恐惧/原始恐惧》
   13. resonate v.产生共鸣