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A Question for the Ages Answered

It's been a dilemma since the first moving picture based on a book played in a darkened theater.
Should you read the book or see the movie first?
My experience with "The Painted Veil" -- the movie -- and "The Painted Veil" -- the book by W. Somerset Maugham and my experience with "Perfume" -- the movie -- and "Perfume" -- the book -- have finally put that question to rest for me.

When my daughter flew up from Texas to visit me in D.C. around Christmas, I took a week off, and we quickly figured out how to spend all that free time.
Go to the movies!
And so we found ourselves squinting up at "The Painted Veil" at the E Street Cinema in D.C.'s Chinatown.
On screen, a silly girl married a serious scientist in the 1920s and proceeded to make them both unhappy.
Kitty marries Walter Fane out of desperation to escape her icky mother and find a place for herself in society (a necessity apparently for the Brits in the 1920s.) Installed with him in China, she finds herself bored with the rather awkward Walter.
The camera cuts to him carefully arranging his slippers side by side before turning to her for a night of married bliss.
But, hey, she's "stuck" with Edward Norton, so she ain't that bad off.
That is, Kitty (Naomi Watts) weds Walter (our boy Norton).
Somehow, over the next several minutes, Kitty and Walter find a cholera epidemic and find each other.
Kitty manages to become less selfish and silly, and Walter manages to get a lot better looking when he ditches the greasy hair gel and gains a tan.
Our boy Norton had to ugly himself up a bit for the part at first, but nothing, thank goodness, like Charlize Theron in "Monster."
Definitely, go see the movie. It's smart, sexy, nuanced and just the right amount of heartbreaking.
"The Painted Veil" is based on the book of the same name by our other boy, Maugham.
This Englishman was a really cool writer who made his name more or less in the first half of the last century. He also spent some time studying medicine and spying for his the Brits.
But he was really a master of psychology, answering all those questions that plague me about characters.
Such as, why is he doing that? Or this?
At least read "The Moon and Sixpence," our boy Maugham's fictionalized account of Paul Gaugin's life.
I went to a cheap used bookstore here in D.C. called Capitol Books and bought a copy of "The Painted Veil."
It was a quick read and definitely had a different plotline from the movie. I got more of a feel for why Kitty couldn't stand Walter although all of those things that made her wrinkle her nose seemed like pretty good qualities.
I can only conclude that Kitty might have grown as a person, but, in the book, she's still too shallow to "get" Walter.
Reading the book and seeing the movie turned out to be quite different experiences. But even if the movie had stuck to the book's plot, it would have been different.
Maugham is a good explainer of character, putting things on the page that the screen doesn't have time for. The movie was a visual treat, but the book was brain candy.
Well, it's late. So I'm heading home and will probably take up "Perfume" in my next post.
I guess the book and the movie will still be around.

Posted by Trish Choate at 06:12 PM | Permalink