Space and Environment: Secret Lairs Film Review

Black Narcissus, 1947

Figure 1: Black Narcissus

'Black Narcissus' 1947 is a spiritual melodrama captured in technicolour, written and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Set in a convent in the Himalayas, the plot follows a group of nuns, sent to the mountain to open and school and dispensery. Sister Clodagh, portrayed by Deborah Kerr, is placed in charge of the other four nuns, including the constantly moody or sick Sister Ruth. The five nuns struggle to adapt to life in their remote, exotic surroundings, each slowly being driven mad by the sensulity of the landscape and people within it. What better theatre in which to explore desire, hysteria, temptation and sexuality than a remote convent high up in the Indian Himalayas? And theatre this Michael Powell film most certainly is, as stressed by the gothic melodrama of the story and the acting, the studio setting with its beautiful backdrops and vivid colours and the most deliberate of characters and events. (Calhoun, 2005)

Thanks to the development of technicolour film making, the production team behind 'Black Narcissus' were presented with the ability to use colour to help make up the mise-en-scene. Production has gained much through being in colour. The production and camerawork atone for minor lapses in the story, Jack Cardiff's

photography being outstanding. (Variety, 1947) Throughout the film colour, particularly red, is used to connote mood and atmosphere. In the beginning of the film, the colour red is only seen in glimpses, hidden in the background. However, as the film progresses and the tension between the nuns grows, the colour seeps into every aspect of the environment. During the final sequences of the film, red lighting is used, especially around Sister Ruth who has turned mad, to portray danger and create tension. Red is used to represent passion, lust and desire, all things that as nuns, the women in the convent have learnt to suppress, therefore as the colour becomes more vibrant this represents the repressed urges and feelings boiling to the surface. The use of strong colour in the film is similar to that of other early colour British films, such as Terence Fisher's 'Dracula' 1958 in which red is used to connote danger and sexuality.

Figure 2

Figure 3

In psychoanalytical terms, Black Narcissus dramatises a key Freudian syndrome: the return of the repressed. (Walker, 1979)

The beautiful Himalayan background and amazing sets of 'Black Narcissus' were created using models, matte painting and trickery. Our mountains were painted on glass. We decided to do the whole thing in the studio and that's the way we managed to maintain colour control to the very end. Sometimes in a film its theme or its colour are more important than the plot. (Powell) Despite the unnatural creation of the environment it is both beautiful to look at and immersive.

Figure 4

'Black Narcissus' can be described as a melodrama, due to the many characteristics it shares with the genre. In melodramatic cinema the tone is often romantic or exotic and good and evil are clearly represented in specific characters. In relation to 'Black Narcissus', the audience is presented with Sister Ruth who is a threat to herself and Sister Clodagh, showing herself to be 'evil'. The emotional treatment of emotion is another characteristic of the genre as well as the emphasis on crises of human emotion and sensational situations. Throughout the film each of the nuns has an inner struggle between their way of life in the convent and the repressed needs and urges brought out by the isolated environment. Michael Powell has called it an erotic film, and so it is on many different levels. There is the sexual arousal of Sister Ruth who casts aside her habit and puts on a red dress and thick red lipstick in her bid for Mr. Dean's affections. There is the erotic undertow to the verbal banter and disagreements between the English agent and Sister Clodagh. (Brussat and Brussat, 2010) As with other melodramas, the sexual connotations within the film are hidden, both due to the limitation at time of the films production and the plot. Colours, sets and hidden dialogue are used to portray the growing sexuality in the film. Camera angles and extreme close-up shots are another characteristic of both the film and the genre, used in this case to portray the growing madness of Sister Ruth. The style of acting adopted by both Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron, Sister Ruth is melodramatic. Closeup shots of their faces and eyes are used, often to convey something without dialogue.

One of the most notable elements of 'Black Narcissus' is the successful build of tension. Especially during the final scenes, the audience is made to feel uncomfortable and tense watching the sinister actions of Sister Ruth. The slow moving plot lends itself to the build up of tension and each aspect of the mise-en-scene come together to show the growing madness of the nuns in the untamed and isolated environment.

Figure 5

Illustration List
Figure 1. Black Narcissus 1947 Film Poster At: http://rato-movieposters.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/blacknarcissus-1947.html Figure 2. Still from Black Narcissus 1947 At: http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/dvd-release-black-narcissus Figure 3. Still from Black Narcissus 1947 At: http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/dvd-release-black-narcissus Figure 4. Matte painting in Black Narcissus 1947 At: Figure 5. Still from Black Narcissus 1947 At: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/emeric-pressburger

Bibliography
Calhoun, D Movie Review from Time Out London 2005 At: http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/67935/ black_narcissus.html Variety Extract of a review from 1947 Black Narcissus 1947 At: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117789320?refcatid=31 Walker, M Review of Black Narcissus 1979 At: http://www.powellpressburger.org/Reviews/47_BN/Walker.html Powell, M Quotes from online article At: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Narcissus Brussat, F and Brussat M.A Film Review Black Narcissus 2010 At: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=20119