The Painted Veil - Presentation Note

Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live

Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.
I knew one who had lifted it--he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love,
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
Through the unheeding many he did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

Percy Bysshe Shelley Charlie Townsend
Post: married British vice consul
= smart, sensible and he knows very well of what’s going on evidence – after walter walked away when he first found them in Kitty’s room, kitty was so panic but townsend knows that Dr. Fane will do nth. To cause any scandal
- when he’s discussing about the dealing with strikes(walkouts)/ boycotts in Shanghai with businessmen in the Colony Club, he banned the suggestion of seeking help from Chiang Kai-Shek as he knew that he’s a nationalist that must stand on the side of Chinese, he will not help them suppressing the strike.

= mature and experienced woman-hunter , very dissolute person and he’s unfaithful to his wife
Evidence –flirted kitty from the very first moment they’ve met when they’re watching the Chinese opera  telling kitty what happened to the actor in the opera which he thinks that it may be similar to Kitty (she weeps for the lively, vivacious girl she once wasthe lonely woman she has become; she weeps for the love she’ll never feel, for the love she’ll never give) to flirt Kitty  made Kitty believes that he understands her, admire her  Charlie Townsend found it so easy to get hold of her

+As described by Waddington: he had his little flirtations

+As described by Dorothy: the women who fell for her husband were so consistently second-rate  even his wife knows that her husband is a gallant/licentious/dissolute person that flirts many women

+having an affair with Kitty adultery, he only sees Kitty as his mistress to satisfy his physical needs
(attachment: lever)
Dorothy is more important to him because “whatever happens, we must try to keep Dorothy out of it”  did not want to hurt Dorothy and nth in the world could induce him to divorce her

Women are always under the impression that men love them more that they really do.

Film language –

= selfish, vain and incapable of caring for anyone but himself
Care for his reputation/ job/ post: “do you have any idea of the importance of my station here? ” – at that time, there’ll be many rumors that ruin the reputation of a man if anyone divorce his wife and marry another woman. Therefore he cares more about his reputation, his position than what will happen on Kitty if he does not marry her, as Kitty is just someone means very little to him.

Film language -

=a person who made false promise
Evidence – sent kitty a ring as a gift – RING: symbolize love, faith and commitment. He proclaimed that he loves Kitty when he was having sex with Kitty, actually he does not love her, it’s just a way to flirt Kitty and make Kitty willing to continue the affair with him.
- promised that he would help solve the problem when Kitty was forced to be divorced. After 5 years, at last, he still did nth, not even a letter to show his concern. “I should have written”

Film language -

Why Townsend treat Kitty as close as 5 years ago when he later met her in London?

=the only one that failed to change in the film
He never learn from any experience or errors that he has made;
Besides, he does not think that he had done sth wrong does not feel sorry /guilty for breaking Kitty’s marriage
He tried to date Kitty again in his later few weeks in London (to see if there’re any more chances for him to flirt kitty again, like 5 years ago) - described by Kitty - “no one important”

20th century that artists began to use it fully; a pipe would stand for thoughtfulness and calm; the cigarette symbolized modernity, strength and youth, but also nervous anxiety; the cigar was a sign of authority, wealth and power. The decades following World War II, during the apex of smoking when the practice had still not come under fire by the growing anti-smoking movement, a cigarette casually tucked between the lips represented the young rebel, epitomized in actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean or mainstays of advertising like the Marlboro Man. It was not until the 1970s when the negative aspects of smoking began to appear; the unhealthy lower-class loser, reeking of cigarette smoke and lack of motivation and drive, especially in art inspired or commissioned by anti-smoking campaigns.[

Literature
Just as in other types of fiction, smoking has had an important place in literature and smokers are often portrayed as characters with great individuality, or outright eccentrics, something typically personified in one of the most iconic smoking literary figures of all, Sherlock Holmes. Other than being a frequent part of short stories and novels, smoking has spawned endless eulogies, praising its qualities and affirming the author's identity as a devoted smoker. Especially during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a panoply of books with titles like Tobacco: Its History and associations (1876), Cigarettes in Fact and Fancy (1906) and Pipe and Pouch: The Smokers Own Book of Poetry (1905) were written in the UK and the US. The titles were written by men for other men and contained general tidbits and poetic musings about the love for tobacco and all things related to it, and frequently praised the refined bachelor's life. The Fragrant Weed: Some of the Good Things Which Have been Said or Sung about Tobacco, published in 1907, contained, among many others, the following lines from the poem A Bachelor's Views by Tom Hall that were typical of the attitude in many of the books:

The cover of My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke (1896) by J.M. Barrie, otherwise best known for his play Peter Pan.
“ So let us drink
To her, – but think
Of him who has to keep her;
And sans a wife
Let's spend our life
In bachelordom, – it's cheaper. ”
—Eugene Umberger[68]

These works were all published in an era before the cigarette had become the dominant form of tobacco consumption and pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco were still commonplace. Many of the books were published in novel packaging that would attract the learned smoking gentleman. Pipe and Pouch came in a leather bag resembling a tobacco pouch and Cigarettes in Fact and Fancy (1901) came bound in leather, packaged in an imitation cardboard cigar box. By the late 1920s, the publication of this type of literature largely abated and was only sporadically revived in the later 20th century.[69]

Cigarettes in old films were early forms of 'product placement'
5. Cigarettes as Phallic Symbols

Back during the Hays Code days, cigarettes were clever devices used as metaphoric hints at sexual activity. When characters shared cigarettes, such as in Now, Voyager, To Have and Have Not and Rope, it implied a sex act. When Marlene Dietrich held a cigarette in any of her films, the prop was a phallic symbol implicit in projecting an image of bisexuality. And ironically, in a film as explicit as 9 ½ Weeks, a cigarette may have been a required stand-in for Mickey Rourke’s penis during a strip-tease scene, because male nudity continues to be a taboo while the naked female body is common on the big screen. However, not all cigarettes in films represent sex and/or phallus, but due to the heavy employment of the prop in such a way for so many years, it’s hard for moviegoers (particularly those of us with film studies degrees) to think of them as anything but sex symbols. Fortunately, Hollywood is being forced to censor out cigarettes from their movies (for even featuring a pack of cigarettes), and meanwhile they continue to break sexual taboos at the same time. So this cliché is likely to go way very soon.

Friendship
Since friendship is not a very important issue in the Painted Veil, Compared to love and death, I’ll just talk about the more significant one.

= kitty and Waddington
At the very first beginning:
Then:
At the end:

= Dr Fane and Colonel Yu
When Colonel Yu met Walter,
Then, after
At the end:

=Kitty and sung ching
At first, Sung Ching was appointed by Colonel Yu to protect Kitty due to the anti-foreigner atmosphere in china, kitty felt like she was guard as a prisoner

Then, she started to reject Sun Ching’s protection and treat him badly when she was finding Mr. Waddington for mailing the letter, tell him to go away and she does not need him

At the climax of the anti-foreigner movement, Sun Ching saved Kitty and Walter from the crowd, on the next day, kitty then ask Sun Ching to come with her friendly.
Mei-tan-fu
Background info
= a village mad up by the author, not a real village
(at first  planned to build a new village of Mei-tan-fu in Guangxi, however, the cost is too huge and overwhelming  sent a scout to find a village for the film  found a completely untouched village = Huang Yao – 800 years history; untouched because there’s no telegraph poles or anything else to contact people in other placesperfect for shooting
The rivers and mountains shoots are taken from Huang Yao, it’s from Guangxi
~> on-location (means the film is shot at the actual place where the action occurs)

Mei-tan fu is a place with many significance in the film, please pick one to and explain why.

Significances:
= new home of the Fanes

= the place where death rest – Chinese villagers/ walter/ kitty seeing two corpses + colour of lights
1st: the corpse of a villager pass along the same road of Kitty and Walter’s sadden chairs
2nd: the hut where kitty and walter stays – the doll on the bed of kitty’s room
Walter: “I won’t touch that if I were you, they may have died in that bed”
3rd: the corpse of a villager on the side of the road when Kitty walked out from Mr, Waddington’s house
4th: the bodies are buried too close to the river
5th: the death of Sister Maryse
6th: the soldiers removing corpses from the villagers’ house
7th:the death of walter

=a place for reunion -kitty and walter=a place where they fall in love again
Before the union, Walter and Kitty were separated spiritually due to the affair ./. kitty and charlie

How – after kitty had heard from the nuns about Walter helping the orphansstating to know that he is a good man and wants to improve their relationship. After Walter had seen Kitty playing with the orphans, he started to have better feelings for Kitty
After the union, their relationship has been recovered, they even have sex after drinking with Mr. Waddington and XX. Then they travel on the boat to let Kitty visit the water XX.

=changes brought by cholera(+ve and -ve) – kitty(+ve)/ walter(+ve &-ve)/ colonel yu(+ve)

Described by Kitty- no place for a woman; madness for me to go
Described by Dr. Fane – small town on a tributary of Yangtze River, in the interior

Film language: colour of light, long shot,