Title: Decomposing the Stereotypes: East-West Dichotomy in the Film Adaptations of W. S. Maugham’s The Painted Veil
Stream: Film Studies
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Irina Stanova, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Abstract:
William Somerset Maugham’s classical novel The Painted Veil (1925), focusing on a marital crisis set against a cholera epidemic in China in the 1920s, and its three Hollywood adaptations (1934, 1957, 2006) feature a confrontation between the East and the West through the interaction between the Westerners, allegedly bringing progressive methods in dealing with the epidemic, and the local population. The ensuing tensions and contradictions are represented depending on the historical and political contexts of film production, predominant ideological trends and evolving attitudes towards ‘the white man’s burden’ myth. As an expansion of my recent article, the present work explores visual aspects of power relationships between the representatives of the Occident and the Orient in the adaptations of The Painted Veil. The detailed analysis of mise-en-scène, blocking (the actors’ movements in relation to the camera) and camera angles provides additional insights into the stereotypical representation of the characters’ positions of power and a gradual restructuring of power dynamics in the most recent film adaptation. The analysis of the three film adaptations created in different historical periods offers important insights into the attitudes, stereotypes and beliefs dominating Western society at the time of filming. I argue that personal confrontations as presented in the film adaptations are expandable to a more general opposition between two different cultures and worldviews.
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