The Painted Veil: The Story Of A Love Born Out Of Disagreement
Based on William Somerset Maugham’s novel, The Painted Veil was shot twice before the 2006 release. In 1934, it was a showcase for Greta Garbo while Eleanor Parker starred in the 1957 version of The Painted Veil. The third big-screen adaptation was Naomi Watts’ opportunity to play Kitty Garstin, Maugham’s flawed heroine.
Culture shock and unrealistic expectations are the pillars of The Painted Veil. A fascinating period tale, where infidelity and guilt form a raft on a shocking emotional journey. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts produced this adapted film version of Maugham’s novel. They also play in it.
When the newlyweds leave England to embrace a new life in Shanghai, their journey goes beyond distance. Hidden passions are revealed as life takes an unexpected turn. What initially appears to be an act of revenge becomes the creation of the central characters.
What does The Painted Veil mean?
The novel L’Autre Côté du Monde begins with a quote that gave birth to the name of the film. It is a sonnet by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), husband of the famous Mary Shelley (creator of Frankenstein), who wrote a poem that begins with the following words: “Do not remove the painted veil that those who live call Life. ”
The veil is a symbol of the separation between life and death in various cultures. It also means that each person shapes their life (the veil) according to their own beliefs (their empty colors). For Shelley, human beings are painted veils under which our true selves hide.
And that’s what The Painted Veil is, a game of masks: not to be who we say we are or to be a faint image of who we are. It is only by lifting the veil that we realize that in this game we are painfully disappointed. It’s wonderful to make the connection between the poem and Kitty’s frivolous life and her journey to a more authentic life.
The game of appearances in The Painted Veil
Kitty Garstin dismissed several suitors thinking someone better was going to show up. Her mother (Maggie Steed) is increasingly concerned about her prospects.
Kitty receives a marriage proposal from a man she just met. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a young bacteriologist who works in a civilian laboratory in Shanghai and who is in London on leave.
The latter is impressed by Kitty (Naomi Watts). However, for her, it simply solves her problem of being able to get married quickly. When they move to Shanghai, Kitty falls in love with English Vice-Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). They both have an affair.
The consul is playing with her and has no intention of formalizing her story. When Walter discovers his infidelity, in an act of revenge, he takes him to a remote village in China ravaged by cholera to provide medical assistance.
Rediscover the other
The Painted Veil is a story of maturation and forgiveness. Walter and Kitty share the guilt for the dire state of their marriage. But with the forces that destroyed it, they learn to reconnect.
Kitty grows up working with orphans at a local convent. Walter has the best of intentions, but his methods are deemed unacceptable because he violates the religious beliefs of the natives.
He goes forward learning to work with people who are apparently not averse to his job. Kitty begins to observe his courage and to look at him from another angle. For the first time, her husband interests her.
The Painted Veil: the couple who really reveal themselves in the face of adversity
Arriving in the remote village of Mei-tan-fu, Kitty is unsure whether nationalists, boredom, or anger will kill her first. There is no quick fix to mending Kitty’s and Walter’s relationship.
They are absorbed by the reality of living in a new hell. It is the circumstances of their difficult situation that will put them at a standstill and allow an effort of intimate understanding.
Love and the blossoming of romantic love is never simple. Kitty sees Walter’s virtues: his dedication to his patients, his kindness, his morals. She finally falls in love with him.
Kitty’s almost adult self-improvement journey is truly believable because of the missteps she takes along the way. Although she has matured throughout the film, she learns after every debacle. She becomes stronger, wiser.
Kitty never had to think of anyone but herself. Finally, everything her husband does finally makes sense. It’s a revelation for Walter who belatedly finds out that his wife is worth meeting, after all. Passion builds and Kitty and Walter are probably making love as husband and wife for the first time in their marriage.
An atypical love story
Kitty gets pregnant and, not knowing who it is, she talks about it with Walter. He, sorry to have judged his wife so harshly, assures her that this child will be theirs without further questions or reproaches.
We could see The Painted Veil as an atypical love story: two married people who did not love each other and who, in the end, in the face of adversity, learned to love each other when time was no longer on their side. In the desperation of the battle with disease, both have found in the other what they never thought they had found.
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