VARIOUS: Edward Norton and Naomi Watts star in "The Painted Veil," a romantic drama set in British Colonial China amongst a deadly cholera outbreak

"The Painted Veil," a new film starring Academy Award nominees Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, tells the story of an estranged couple stuck in the middle of nowhere in China as a massive cholera outbreak sweeps the countryside. Set at the height of British Colonial Rule in China, the film is an adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel of the same name about an unfaithful wife of a research scientist, who, once he discovers her affair, accepts a job in a remote Chinese village as an act of vengeance. However, in their solitary state, the couple reconfigures their relationship and discovers that the unhappiness plaguing them is far less important then the problems they face day to day. "It's about these people out in this landscape, in some ways starting to recognize the smallness of their own problems and get over it in some sense, grow up and forgive each other, and look at each other a little more honestly," says Actor Edward Norton, who plays Walter Fane in "The Painted Veil." The film has been championed for the better part of a decade by Edward Norton, whose fascination with the far east began with several Chinese history classes at Yale University. Adapting the 1925 novel to screenplay was a difficult process to face for writer Ron Nyswaner, as much of the book had to be condensed into flashbacks the film. The result is a time-spanning look into the ups and downs of a relationship between a scientist more fascinated with his work than his upper-class wife, and the changes both of them make when removed from their typical surroundings. "It takes this horrible situation to undo her, and in her undoing she becomes so much deeper and so much more in touch with herself, and it's a slow process and it involves a lot of self-loathing and being hated by her partner and all that anguish, and then finally she stops reacting to it because she's sort of more affected by what's going on around her, and she almost lets go of her own self pity and is able to focus on others in this great, beautiful environment, and that's when she has this terrific growth spurt and becomes someone who's able to actually fall in love," says actress Naomi Watts, who plays Kitty Fane in "The Painted Veil." With her husband off researching, Kitty has nothing to occupy her time with but daydreams of her affair with English Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schrieber), so she decides to help out at the village's local orphanage while her husband tries desperately to prevent the Cholera epidemic from spreading. During this time, the Fane's develop a newfound affinity for each other as well as a sense of purpose in the world, far from the boring trappings of British society. To prepare adequately for the role, Norton read extensively on the subject of Cholera and the devastation it brings even to this day. "The good times of cholera. Man, that is not a fun disease to catch, I think. And I was really surprised reading that it's very easy to treat, the treatment for it is to hydrate someone with saline solution, that's it. And you would think, 'well that can't still exist in the modern world,' but they had a massive cholera outbreak in west Africa last year. Thousands of thousands of people died mostly because of a lack of clean water. It's incredible," says Edward Norton. "The Painted Veil" opens in the United States on December 15th. The film also stars Liev Schrieber and Dame Diana Rigg, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for its musical score by Alexandre Desplat.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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