The Painted Veil (2006) on Netflix
Bacteriologist Walter Fane marries Kitty Garstin and takes her to Shanghai. When he learns of her affair with Charles Townsend, he volunteers to treat cholera victims inland and brings her along.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.4/10100,675 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes74%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the early 1920s, the bacteriologist Walter Fane meets Kitty Garstin during a short visit to London and proposes. Kitty, hoping to get away from her mother, accepts. They spend their honeymoon in Venice and then settle in Shanghai, where Walter works in a laboratory and Kitty fills her days with parties and gossip among the British residents. She begins a secret affair with Charles Townsend, a married vice consul. Walter finds out but says nothing at first. He then offers to serve as a volunteer medic in a distant part of China, where cholera is spreading unchecked, and he tells Kitty he wants her to accompany him.
Cast
- Ian Renwickas Geoffrey Denison (as Ian Rennick)
- Lorraine Laurenceas Sister Maryse
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Painted Veil (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When the Chinese production company reviewed the film, its representatives were unhappy with the depiction of the Chinese uprising and the cholera victims and requested revisions; Norton and Curran felt their studio accepted the censorship too quickly, and the director's threat to remove his name helped limit cuts to 38 seconds.
- Mark Gill took the project with him when he left Stratus Film Company to start Warner Independent Pictures, but he was fired before the film's completion by Warner Bros. production president Jeff Robinov, which was said to contribute to the film's marketing difficulties.
- Nearly two decades later, in 2024, Naomi Watts named The Painted Veil her most underrated film, saying it 'was a really lovely film, that nobody saw.'
- This was the third film version of Maugham's novel, following a 1934 adaptation with Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall and a 1957 version called The Seventh Sin starring Bill Travers and Eleanor Parker.
- Edward Norton said the character Walter Fane served as "the proxy for the arrogance of Western rationalism", explaining that Fane was confused when the Chinese were not grateful for his help: "Walter means well, but he's the folly of empire".
