Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson,
Ralph
Fiennes, Lynn Redgrave, John Wood
Producer
:
Ismail Merchant, Andreas Schmid, Marcus
Schofer.
Director
:
James Ivory
Genre
:
-
Duration
:
138 mins
Set in Shanghai in the late 1930's,
the story of the relationship between a disillusioned
former US diplomat and a refugee White Russian countess
reduced to a sordid life in the city's bars. Todd
Jackson (mid 40's), once an American diplomat filled
with idealism, has lost his sight several years
earlier, and is now languishing in Shanghai's grand
hotels and elite gentlemen's clubs, a burnt out
case, He has become bitterly disillusioned by realpolitic
and the seemingly unavoidable nature of war and
conflict. He is, moreover, deeply bereaved by the
deaths of his wife and children victims of violent
events in the political turmoil of 1930's China
that also robbed him of his sight.
