Oh yes , you are so right when you say it's a pleasure to see Ralph F. in a movie where there is an absence of heavy breathing. You have to remember this story is set in a time when people kept their feelings under wraps. The Russians were former aristocrats, who are always aloof. Sophia was actually quite passionate compared to the rest of the family, who were living the past.
Add to that they were is an unreal situation in a foreign country and in unsettled times. In situations like that no-one behaves as they would in their own environment. In a time of war people do the strangest things and they pair up with people they wouldn't in peace time. I felt there was a strong undercurrent of passion. Jackson and Sophia harboured a lot of unspoken feeling for one another this adds to the tension. You have to had experienced this yourself to recognise it when you see it. This kind of tension acts as a powerful accellerant when social tension collapses, which it does and when it does the two leads immediately gravitate towards oneanother.
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artisticengineer
17 years ago
Even the title of the movie is somewhat misleading. "The White Countess" can be taken (and probably is by a lot of people) as a reference to her skin color-which borderlines on racism. I doubt if the film company intended that allusion though. Instead, the term "White Countess" refers to the fact that she was a "White Russian"; a term that has nothing to do with race but rather with politics- the other russians being termed "Reds" or Bolshieviks (Communists is the western term). The "White Russians" were noncommunists who were loyal to the Czar. After the death of the Czar they were loyal to the idea of a monarchist Russia.
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