Black Narcissus
My god this was stunning. All of the Powell & Pressburger films i've seen have been, the only problem is i have not been that into anything else. Well finally this was an exception. This film was ridiculously (nearly) passionate and erotic and it was basically perfect as it mirrored the life of a nun. It felt like it was supressing its urge to become an erotic film due to the time it was made and the moral attitudes that would prevent something like that to be made, just like a nun surpresses urges that go against the church. Personally i'm of the opinion that restricting sex for priests and nuns is silly, it's an outdated practice that can't be healthy. For people whose faith is a powerful thing to them they don't just believe they can't have sex but that sexual thoughts are a bad thing. This has to be dangerous as it's a part of our (or most not discounting the experiece of Asexuals or whatever else) biological makeup. This is just my personal opinion of course hope it doesn't offend anyone of faith and if it does all you have to remember is that: i'm an idiot haha. I realize that i don't have a say when i don't even subscribe to this faith anymore, regardless i did somewhat relate to this through some of the things i was told growing up.
This was like a thriller, the tension and suspense was incredible haha. Deborah Kerr set this in motion early on by looking annoyed at herself everytime she was caught off guard with a joke by Dean, she played her role really well. The only thing i wasn't completely on board with with her was her flashbacks, they were a little heavy-handed and on the nose. Think i would have implied a past similar life through a conversation with Dean or Ruth rather than outright show one, it would have kept her character and thoughts more mysterious. I mean i loved the focus on her face and mannerisms during alot of this where i could have been wondering what she was thinking and what she was really like except the film flat out showed me making her character a little less intriguing. David Farrar was perfect as the charming and seductive guy, that's a difficult thing to pull off for me; not sure whether it's because i'm a straight guy or what but alot of attempts at being charming make me roll my eyes, the only person it works for every single time is Cary Grant. Him wearing shorts constantly with his hairy chest and legs exposed was exactly right, he was completely foreign to them something that has to be enticing to people living such a repressed existence. Weirdly even though he represented something i support: sexual freedom for the repressed nuns he managed to come across like a villain at times, probably because he was pretty smug and you always knew he knew exactly what he was doing. Ruth was my favourite character, i loved her and would have liked to see more of her. Throughout she seemed like someone who wasn't quite locked into this life yet, she wasn't as composed and as on guard as Clodagh. Also OMG, i'd seen the picture i used loads and i was always convinced it was from The Devils which i haven't seen, was such a great moment when that appeared and i loved that scene, was so intense and Ruth seemed delightfully insane. She was pretty over the top but in a good way i thought as she was supposed to be sleep deprived and psychologically damaged from heavy guilt due to her thoughts and urges, her acting irrational was completely in character. Plus she sounded like a petulant teenager when she rose her voice which went really well with this side of her. Seeing her out of her nun garb was incredible, so effective it reminded me of seeing Ida's hair in Ida. I liked the ending and i disagree with Sean about the dread it was building, not because i disagree with him about it being strong he is right. Thing is though i don't think it was attempting to build a sense of dread throughout, i think the first hour and the last 40 minutes are delibarately like two different films; there's a clear dramatic shift when Ruth starts going insane. And again deliberately i think it feels like they've stuffed a short amount of time with all of this out of nowhere to make it seem tense and unpredictable rarther than them trying to build it throughout the film. That was just what i felt anyway.
Damn the nuns where sexy Kathleen Byron especially, i've never had a thing for nuns but this film gave me crippling catholic guilt despite being a lapsed catholic
. The cinematography really was amazing. One of the most beautiful films i've ever seen, after seeing 49th Parallel i said i've never liked a film alot on visuals alone but this would have came close; truly wonderful to look at. Thankfully i liked other parts anyway. Great film. My only real problem was some over the top characters (in a bad way not like Ruth), like Angu (that was that old woman right? not sure if i've mixed her name up) who was awful as well as Sabu's subplot which i couldn't care less about.