Their 1947 psychological drama Black Narcissus <\/em>has a timeliness factor of its own (sort of)\u2014there was a 2020 BBC limited series adaptation (seen here on FX), albeit one, its creators strenuously insisted, of the source novel by Rumer Godden. That\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand, no matter the ostensible inspiration; you don\u2019t just go remaking one of the most distinctive and influential motion pictures ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Archers grab you from frame one, thanks to the ever-reliable work of their regular cinematographer Jack Cardiff: the opening credits, and every frame that follows, feature painterly compositions, in eye-catching color, of gorgeous scenery and jaw-dropping close-ups. His camera moves elegantly but with restraint; he\u2019s showing off, but never just to show off. The setting is a convent in the Himalayas, where Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) will be \u201cthe youngest sister superior in our order\u201d (per the Reverend Mother). It\u2019s a big assignment for her, and one handed to her with comical lack of confidence: \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re ready for it. And I think you\u2019ll be lonely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One cannot envy Sister Clodagh\u2019s mission; she\u2019s going in to a difficult circumstance with precious few tools. The sisters who will work under her are various degrees of messy, difficult, and unreliable, no more than Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), who goes in a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic and only nosedives from there. Sister Blanche (Jenny Laird) condescends grotesquely to the schoolchildren they\u2019re to teach (\u201cThey look very stupid to me\u201d), and Angu Ayah (May Hallatt), the native caretaker, seems utterly insane. On top of all of that, Sister Clodagh must cowtow to the various local powers-that-be, \u201cThe General\u201d and his heir and, worse of all, \u201cMr. Dean,\u201d a smug sonofabitch who is, in her words, \u201cobjectionable when you\u2019re sober and abominable when you\u2019re drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These opening scenes set up what appears to be, and functions for no small amount of time as, a social drama, taking on hot-button issues of religion, patriarchy, and colonialism. The Archers hit these notes so adroitly that the picture\u2019s slow, deliberate turn from respectable drama to unhinged insanity is, in retrospect, something of a bait-and-switch; we thought we were watching A Nun\u2019s Tale<\/em> and then, in the blink of an eye, we\u2019ve plunged headlong into a psychological horror movie. It\u2019s such a delicate balance, the slow build of mood, the mounting of tension, the shift from discomfort into something like madness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone starts to bring out the worst in each other, and Sister Clodagh feels the entire situation spinning out of her control\u2014she knows, as she initially suspected, that she was put in a no-win situation. \u201cI told you this was no place for a nunnery,\u201d smug old Mr. Dean says, smugly. \u201cThere\u2019s something in that atmosphere that makes everything feel exaggerated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That offhand statement feels like a mission statement for Powell and Pressburger, who ultimately find the onscreen vehicle for their fire and passion not in the perpetually restrained Sister Clodagh, but in Sister Ruth. Byron, with fire in her eyes, crafts a stark and stirring portrayal of going out of one\u2019s mind, a woman so driven by her base desires that she chooses to renounce her sisterhood and pursue Mr. Dean. When he rejects her, she turns desperate (and impossible to stop watching), her voice going into hysterics, her wild eyes increasingly a-flutter, and she returns to the convent to kill Clodagh, stalking her and the other nuns like an \u201880s slasher villain. In those scenes, and in the unforgettable climax, we\u2019re watching Powell and Pressburger clearing a path for an entire generation of erotic thrillers and operatic giallos. Some movies are mere entertainment; Black Narcissus<\/em> is breaking new ground, an act just as thrilling as any of the theatrics onscreen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBlack Narcissus\u201d is streaming on <\/em>Amazon Prime<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Max<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>the Criterion Channel<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Tubi<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>PlutoTV<\/em><\/a>, and several other <\/em>ad-supported streamers<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> You can hear me (and my co-host Mike Hull) discuss “Black Narcissus” with critic-turned-screenwriter April Wolfe on our podcast, “A Very Good Year,” here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/b-n-still-1024x576.jpg\")
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