Unrated, 1 hr. 41 min. Directed By:
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Release Date:
Aug 1, 1947. DVD Release
Date: Jan 30, 2001.
There was something about this that
didn’t sit right with me. Like Metropolis, Black Narcissus was heavy with historical importance… although in this
case there aren’t any obvious conclusions to draw until you look at the events
that happen in and around the release date of this movie. Within a few months of the release of this
movie, India would gain its independence and give the British Empire the mortal
wound that would take another twenty years to kill its victim. The Brits were watching the crumbling of the
empire that never saw the setting of the sun and it had to rankle. Lord knows there are prejudices in other
imperial powers that arose from colonies declaring they’d had enough of rule by
people who really couldn’t care less about them. Don’t believe me? Ask your average French person about the
Algerians. I’ve heard the French speak
with more kindness about the gypsies, and there’s no love lost there, either.
Technically, I found that this movie
was more than proficient. It was really
excellent in its cinematography, its casting, and in its execution. I should specify that I think the actors in
the movie were well chosen… in terms of talent.
I found it to be a bit galling that almost the entire cast was played by
Caucasian actors, even those playing the “natives” from that unnamed Himalayan
country that I assumed to be one of the old northern states of India (before the Union and Pakistan were formed), possibly Kashmir, although India would at
this time be a number of associated states and it could be any of them, most of
which I don’t know by name. I understand
why this movie appeared so many times when I asked for recommendations. But, in most ways, I think this movie looked
prettier than it actually was.
By that I mean that I think this had
all the makings of high melodrama, the kind of movie that was so popular before
the 60s. However, the details of this movie
are self-serving and deeply rooted in the events of the day. The movie is itself a metaphor for what was
happening between India and England. By
British terms, India declaring itself would have been nearly a slap in the
face, as it was in those other colonial powers when their holdings started
asking to set up house for themselves.
Indians would have been seen as wild, ungrateful, and primitive, slave
to every passion in the human heart. You
can see that in fiction that comes from the same period, since the relatively stuffy Victorian authors pretty much use those exact terms to describe the various members of their empire. In Black
Narcissus, the natives could be described by those same adjectives, and it
was clear that the nuns, those figureheads of “good Christian” civilization,
were sent packing because they had failed to civilize the thankless natives,
who chose to shun the nuns rather than to forgive a few “minor” mistakes. The symbolism is pretty rampant, and there’s
no wonder that this movie was as popular as it was. I guess you could say that I feel like this movie was too filled with thinly veiled propaganda, and not necessarily in a way that I find appropriate for the medium.
But, as much as I thought this was
technically a fine film, and I appreciate it in terms of its historical place,
but this wasn’t a movie I enjoyed. It
wasn’t fun, which is always a problem for me. For the fan of Film, this is worth seeing, but the average movie-goer probably isn't going to race to add this to their collection, no matter how well made the movie may be.
