Dusting off Maugham and finding tale still rings true

AS a leading literary voice for more than 30 years, W. Somerset Maugham was winning readers with such novels as “Of Human Bondage,” “The Moon and Sixpence” and “The Razor’s Edge.” But in recent decades, the British writer has fallen out of favor.

“I’m not a read student of Somerset Maugham,” said John Curran, director of the latest adaptation of Maugham’s 1925 novel, “The Painted Veil.” “I think he was sort of a tortured soul. He is sort of infamous for his misogynist view of women and arrogance abroad in his attitude. A lot of that gives him an archaic voice in a way, but there is still an authenticity and a compassion for a lot of the flawed characters that comes across in his stories.”

“Flawed” is a generous way to describe the characters in the 1920s romance set in China. Kitty (Naomi Watts) is a spoiled London socialite on the verge of “old maid” status. To get away from her socially conscious mother’s diatribes, she marries a man she doesn’t love, Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a shyly serious bacteriologist who lives in Shanghai.

As the couple enter British colonial society, the bored Kitty soon finds herself in the arms and in the bed of a handsome but married British vice consul, Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber).

When Walter learns of Kitty’s affair, he volunteers to help fight a cholera epidemic in a remote Chinese village -- forcing Kitty to accompany him. And as the months pass, the two begin to fall in love.

“At the heart of this story is sort of a murder-suicide pact,” said Curran. “I found that really interesting. Even in the novel, it’s sort of a petulant tit for tat. It’s almost a high school-level revenge kind of thing. I don’t think they really realize what they have gotten themselves into until they get out [to the village], and that’s why they sort of awaken to themselves a little bit.”

“The Painted Veil” had been filmed twice before -- as one of Greta Garbo’s weaker vehicles in 1934 and with even worse results as “The Seventh Sin” in 1957.

Curran didn’t watch the Garbo version until he was in production in China. “It took me ages to track that down,” he said. “I was kind of horrified!”

Shooting on location in China was tough, said Curran. “There is obviously a healthy film community in mainland China and particularly Hong Kong, but it is very different from ours. There are a lot of positions and equipment we take for granted [in the U.S.], we didn’t have. Basically, the logistics of shooting there made it more difficult.”

But Curran didn’t want to compromise by shooting elsewhere. “What I was particularly looking for,” he said, “you couldn’t fake anywhere else.”

The film opens Dec. 20.

-- S.K.