Sadly, garrulous producer Ismail Merchant passed away in 2005, making The White Countess his cinematic swansong. His long-time business partner James Ivory directed the film starring Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson as star-crossed lovers. Curiously though, it felt like "a pale imitation of a Merchant-Ivory film". Some critics disagreed, but it hardly caused a blip on the box office radar.

White Wash

"It's not a realistic story, and it's not a realistic depiction of 30s Shanghai," asserts Ivory in a Making Of featurette. It's a bizarre way to pitch the film and he only makes matters worse when he later admits, "I can't tell you what this film is about." It wouldn't be surprising if he next confessed to not knowing his own name. Thankfully, his principal crewmembers are a little more clued in and together they offer a brief overview of the look of the film ie production design, costuming, photography and choreography. Snippets of footage from location in Shanghai also record the staging of the explosive finale.

A second behind-the-scenes featurette hears from the actors, including Fiennes, Richardson and her mother Vanessa Redgrave on the inner workings of their characters. It feels like a lot of redundant explanation and then there's the usual 'hyping up' of their director. Writer Kazuo Ishiguro gets a slap on the back too ("He's an inspired genius!" coos Richardson), but given the heavy subtext of the film, it's surprising that the man himself doesn't contribute at all to this disc.

Polite Conversation

Ivory shares the feature commentary with Richardson and she takes control from the outset, asking him various questions about his intentions that he never answers in a satisfactory way. Perhaps it's because, as he says, he works "from instinct". For example, he explains that Richardson was always his first choice for Sofia because there was "something Russian" about her. He then goes on to insult her in the most indirect way, talking about the cinematographer having to "take real pains to make the leading lady look wonderful". The actress is characteristically demure, saying, "I don't think I've ever been shot so well, or will be again..."

Except for a spot of wet weather, Ivory doesn't give away much about the challenges of working on location in Shanghai. Likewise there are only hints about the development phase with Ivory making just a passing reference to flashbacks of Sofia's early life in Russia that were eventually excised.

A tribute to Ismail Merchant rounds off the extras menu. He appears in archive footage and describes himself as a "hustler". There's also word from the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and, of course, James Ivory, but it's a shame that these are also drawn from the archives. It amounts to a mishmash of grainy soundbites that hardly make for a proper retrospective of Merchant's life and work. On the other hand, going by the rest of the extras, you would think he had nothing to do with the making of this film anyway. It's fair to say that The White Countess retains a little too much mystery on DVD.

EXTRA FEATURES