Skip to main content

The Criterion Channel Presents: Black Narcissus (1947)


Is Black Narcissus the first Nun-sploitation movie? I mean it doesn’t have a dominatrix Mother Superior or lesbian experimentation, but it is a story about the sexual repression of nuns in a remote convent and what becomes of that. What’s perhaps most shocking is it was made in 1947 yet feels like something from the 60’s or 70’s. This no doubt is because of the incredible freedom of expression its writer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had, both in terms of content and technique, as well as the fact the movie was produced in Britain away from the Hays Code which would have censored the films’ more overt sexual implications and suggestive imagery, its sacrilegious elements, and its subtle critiques of colonialism. The film is centred on five nuns in the Himalayas who convert a solitary seraglio near Darjeeling into a school and hospital for the local natives, focusing as well on their relationship with a nearby British official and a Bengali prince. The movie is filled to the brim with erotic subtext as the nuns are captivated by the sensuality of the environment and the rugged masculinity of Mr. Dean (David Farrar), an otherwise typical dickish (and racist) British agent. Particularly, the movie is concerned with the interplay between the well-meaning Sister Superior Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) and the less disciplined, somewhat unstable Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), jealous of the relationship between Clodagh and Dean. Kerr and Byron are incredible, the latter I’m shocked didn’t become a more major star afterwards, and a young Jean Simmons, acting mostly through exquisite expression and body language, is a highlight of the supporting cast -though it’s a shame to see one of my favourite actresses playing a role in brown-face.
 All of this is great, but what truly sets Black Narcissus apart from just about any other movie produced during that time is its visuals. The technicolour is gorgeous, astonishingly vivid for a movie with so much white, the lighting and make-up is amazingly vibrant; but the biggest star might be the matte paintings that substitute for location shooting. They suggest both extraordinary scale, and in their unreal beauty an otherworldly atmosphere, putting you in the same mindset as the nuns. For sets so obviously fake, they feel much more real than many an actual location shoot -it’s some of the most breathtaking art direction I’ve ever seen! Jack Cardiff’s cinematography is equally impressive, the way he makes use of extreme close-ups and long shots to best convey the tension Powell and Pressburger write so well (you can tell they were fans of Hitchcock). The cloister bell on the ledge of the mountain on which the palace is perched is probably the most iconic and evocative image of the movie, terrifying and beautiful in its grandiosity. The last act especially is full of radiant visual choices, precipitating an ending that is the very definition of iconic cinema.

Criterion Recommendation: The Mission (1986)
While on the subject of a religious order operating in a remote location to indoctrinate natives, another great movie to add to the Collection is Roland Joffe’s The Mission, about an 18th century Spanish Jesuit mission in South America. It too is a lush and beautiful looking movie with captivating cinematography and an engaging story. It’s one of Robert De Niro’s lesser known but best performances, as a mercenary taken in and subsequently converted by the priest played by Jeremy Irons -also great in the movie; and its remarkably historically accurate to the period and context without being terribly racist. Most of all though it’s got one of the greatest movie scores, courtesy of the legendary Ennio Morricone, sensational and glorious enough to even make an atheistic cynic like me sympathize with missionaries. 

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JordanBosch
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jordan_D_Bosch
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disney's Mulan, Cultural Appropriation, and Exploitation

I’m late on this one I know. I wasn’t willing to spend thirty bucks back in September for a movie experience I knew was going to be far poorer than if I had paid half that at a theatre. So I waited for it to hit streaming for free to give it a shot. In the meantime I heard that it wasn’t very good, but I remained determined not to skip it entirely, partly out of sympathy for director Niki Caro and partly out of morbid curiosity. Disney’s live-action Mulan  I was actually mildly looking forward to early in the year in spite of my well-documented distaste for this series of creative dead zones by the most powerful media conglomerate on earth. Mulan  was never one of Disney’s classics, a movie extremely of its time in its “girl power” gender politics and with a decidedly American take on ancient Chinese mythology. It got by on a couple good songs and a strong lead, but it was a movie that could be improved upon, and this new version looked like it had the potential to do that, emphasizing
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hays Code was Bad, Sex in Movies is Good

Don't Look Now (1973) Will Hays, Who Knows About Sex In 1930, former Republican politician and chair of the Motion Picture Association of America Will Hayes introduced a series of self-censorship guidelines for the movie industry in response to a mixture of celebrity scandals and lobbying from the Catholic Church against various ‘immoralities’ creating a perception of Hollywood as corrupt and indecent. The Hays Code, or the Motion Picture Production Code, was formally adopted in 1930, though not stringently enforced until 1934 under the auspices of Joseph Breen. It laid out a careful list of what was and wasn’t acceptable for a film expecting major distribution. It stipulated rules against profanity, the depiction of miscegenation, and offensive portrayals of the clergy, but a lot of it was based around sexual content: “sexual perversion” of any kind was disallowed, as were any opaquely textual or visual allusions to reproduction, and right near the top “No licentious or suggestiv
Post a Comment
Read more

Pixar Sundays: The Incredibles (2004)

          Brad Bird was already a master by the time he came to Pixar. Not only did he hone his craft as an early director on The Simpsons , but he directed a little animated film for Warner Bros. in 1999, that though not a box office success was loved by critics and quickly grew a cult following. The Iron Giant is now among many people’s favourite animated movies. Likewise, Bird’s feature debut at Pixar, The Incredibles , his own variation of a superhero movie, is often considered one of the studio’s best. And for very good reason, as the most talented director at Pixar shows.            Superheroes were once the world’s greatest crime-fighting force until several lawsuits for collateral damage (and in the case of Mr. Incredible, a hilarious suicide prevention), outlawed their vigilantism. Fifteen years later Mr. Incredible, now living as Bob Parr, has a family with his wife Helen, the former Elastigirl. But Bob, in a combination of mid-life crisis and nostalgia for the old day
1 comment
Read more